Leftists terrified as their progressive poster child Mamdani fails in New York  

Like a proud dad, independent Sen. Bernie Sanders took to social media recently to cheer Zohran Mamdani’s budget wizardry in New York City. He gushed on X, “Congratulations to Mayor Mamdani. He inherited a huge budget deficit, brought it down to zero, and still invested in childcare, housing and city infrastructure.”   

The young mayor, not shy about touting his own supposed success, was even more effusive. The social media star posted: “When we came into office, we uncovered a $12 billion budget deficit. Today, I’m proud to say we brought it down to zero. We didn’t close the gap on the backs of working people.”

But Sanders knows better, and so does Mamdani. They both know that the flimsy budget proposal is a mash-up of false savings, payment postponements, poorly designed taxes and fees that will hurt working-class New Yorkers, plus a massive $4 billion bailout from Gov. Kathy Hochul (D).

Oh, and by the way, the law demands that the city’s budget must balance; you don’t get applauded for following the law, especially when you do it with the actuarial equivalent of chewing gum and chicken wire.

None of Mamdani’s supposed feat is real; none of it is sustainable, and it definitely does not deserve the hosannas streaming in from leftists like Sanders, who are justificably panicked that the young socialist mayor is failing already.  

After his first 100 days in office, Mamdani’s approval rating plummeted to below that awarded his predecessor, Eric Adams. Maybe it was his ideological decision to allow 18 people to freeze to death on the sidewalks. Perhaps it was his cozying up to known antisemites like Hasan Piker. In any case, after just a few months on the job, only 30 percent of Big Apple residents report being “happy” with Mamdani’s performance. Democratic socialists are on alert; Mamdani is their poster child, and they are praying........

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