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OPINION

Florida vs. New York

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
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AP Photo/Lynne Sladky

Where would you rather live, Florida or New York? It’s a simple question with a basic, easy answer: Florida. But liberal elites hate the Sunshine State and love the Empire State, so the pictures being painted in the media of the two states are unrecognizable. 

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Florida has about 2 million more people than New York, 21.5 million to 19.5 million, yet it has no state income tax. New York’s tax rate ranges from 4 percent to 8.82 percent, New York City has its own tax rate ranging from 3.078 percent to 3.876 percent. Someone making a good living in New York City is forced to cough up almost 12.7 percent of their income to local governments, in addition to what they have to send the federal government. Why would anyone voluntarily do that?

It’s hard to feel badly for them, they elect Democrats, so it’s a little like feeling badly for someone complaining of a headache while they bang their head against a wall. They bought the ticket, they have to take the ride.

Still, it’s not just taxes, or even crime, it’s quality of life and life itself. 

New York has been a disaster when it comes to the COVID pandemic. Governor Andrew Cuomo has overseen more deaths than most countries, and is directly responsible for most of them. His order that nursing homes had to take in COVID positive patients was not only deadly, it was unnecessary. 

He did it because he was afraid hospitals would be overwhelmed and he wanted to keep as many beds as possible free for people not living in pseudo-medical care facilities. So, in that sense at least, it was somewhat understandable, if still stupid. But the rush of sick people overwhelming hospitals never happened. The Navy hospital ship sent to NYC and the emergency field hospitals built to handle overflow sat empty. 

As hospitals were fine, nursing homes were not. Untold thousands died as a result of Cuomo’s order. To put it mildly, that order was a huge mistake. But the unforgivable part of that mistake is that Cuomo let the order stand for 2 months. Nursing home deaths were piling up, families were being devastated, and hospitals weren’t close to capacity, yet the order stood and people continued to die.

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Were Cuomo a Republican, he would have been crucified by the press. Since he’s a Democrat whose brother is a noted personality on CNN, he was given a pass. And an Emmy. 

Meanwhile, down in Florida, Governor Ron DeSantis did not lock down his state, did not order sick seniors into nursing homes, and was demonized by the press. With slightly more than half the deaths of New York, DeSantis is somehow still the problem. 

CNN, which slobbers over Cuomo, routinely smears DeSantis, who has no family members on the media’s payroll. New York’s economy is crippled, New York City will be a ghost town now that companies realize they can be just as productive without the massive expense of renting office space, and there isn’t an easy way to make up for that. Florida, on the other hand, has suffered from a drop in tourism, but that’s about it. Yet, somehow DeSantis is the worse Governor? How?

There is no answer, not a real one anyway. Florida is distributing vaccines to the people most likely to face death or severe infection from COVID and people are lining up for it. New York is using a “woke” model for distribution while few shots are actually being given. DeSantis is leaving control of the “last mile” of inoculation to the experts at medical facilities. Cuomo is threatening to fine facilities up to $1 million if they inject anyone from a demographic not on his approved list, even if vaccines sit idle and expire.

There is virtually nothing good happening in New York, yet CNN spends its time attacking Florida. One of CNN’s “reporters” even got into a shouting match with DeSantis over vaccine distribution.

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If you wrote the story of how Florida and New York have been covered by the media as fiction, your editor would reject the manuscript for being too ridiculous to be believed, yet that’s where we are. 

Ultimately, the truth is in the numbers. As the media fawns over Cuomo and attacks DeSantis, people are fleeing New York and flocking to Florida. There’s your answer. We just need to hope the people fleeing realize they’re ultimately not running away from where they lived but what they voted for.

Derek Hunter is the host of a free daily podcast (subscribe!), host of a daily radio show on WCBM in Maryland, and author of the book, Outrage, INC., which exposes how liberals use fear and hatred to manipulate the masses. Follow him on Twitter at @DerekAHunter

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