New York has few redeeming qualities to compete with its high taxes, habit of electing corrupt leaders, and restricted freedom. For years, New Yorkers have fled to friendlier free states such as Texas, Florida, and Tennessee. Voting with their feet has been the final expression of disapproval for many one-time residents of the Empire State.
This week, the U.S. Census Bureau announced the results of its 2020 count, reporting a national population of 331,449,281. More than informational, the decennial census is used to calculate how many congressional representatives each state will send to Washington, D.C., through the apportionment process.
New York—along with California, Illinois, Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia—will each lose one seat in the U.S. House. In the case of New York, the state missed the threshold necessary to maintain its current number of congressional representatives by an unbelievably-close 89 people.
In a press conference accompanying the release of the 2020 census data, officials cited "net negative" migration in New York as a reason for the lost seat. A study from Empire Center reports an "outmigration flow of 1.4 million" residents to other states from 2010 to 2020. It's obvious to conservatives why people would choose to live in free states rather than suffer under the nonsensical rule of radicals like Governor Cuomo or be represented by the likes of Senator Schumer or Congresswoman Ocasio-Cortez.
New York liberals, though, don't see it so clearly. Angry posts about losing a congressional seat filled Twitter in the wake of the Census Bureau's announcement, but there wasn't accountability for Cuomo or mention of perhaps why people wouldn't want to live in New York. "The Daily Show's" Trevor Noah called the loss of a congressional seat "unbelievable," saying New York "got screwed."
Except New York didn't get screwed—it got exactly what anyone who's been paying attention could have predicted would happen—and the blame belongs with the state's Democratic leaders. Frankly, it's surprising New York was even close to maintaining its current congressional representation. More New Yorkers ought to wake up to the reality of what's going on around them and who is to blame for that chaos.
Before Cuomo's state's population drain killed off a congressional seat, his 2019 monster of an abortion bill legalized the wanton killing of unborn babies while removing legal protections for the unborn in New York. It's a radical free pass under the law for late-term abortion on demand with so-called limits that do nothing to restrict abortion at all.
Even worse, Cuomo's utterly dehumanizing bill stripped laws that recognized the humanity of unborn babies with legal protection when their mothers were violently attacked. To boot, Cuomo made sure to remove protections for babies who survive botched abortions.
This barbarism is a clear outlier in the civilized world and a codified license to kill for New York's abortion industry. If New York wants to stop losing congressional seats, maybe they should stop allowing the next generation of New Yorkers to be murdered at will.
Economically, New York's supposedly "progressive" leaders smother individual citizens with taxes that disincentivize economic activity. A new comparison from WalletHub ranked all 50 states based on their tax burden and shows New York levies the highest tax burden in America on its citizens.
When it comes to businesses, the Tax Foundation's 2020 State Business Tax Climate Index found New York to be the second-worst state in the country. These taxes also suffocate individual economic growth because taxes on businesses are "ultimately borne by individuals through lower wages, increased prices, and decreased shareholder value" as the Index notes.
Why wouldn't New Yorkers take their assets and talents to a state with no income tax or a flat tax that allows them to keep more of what they earn while more than likely enjoying a lower cost of living? On tax and regulatory policy, New York Democrats are almost begging their citizens to leave the state and take their congressional representatives with them.
Then there's Cuomo's indefensible decision to force thousands of COVID-positive patients into his state's nursing homes via executive order. The decision flew in the face of the science he extolled in his Emmy-winning briefings. He then made his guilt clear by trying to cook the books, hiding the number of casualties caused by his orders while seeking a book deal.
Due to Cuomo's lies, we still don't know exactly how many vulnerable New Yorkers lost their lives as a result of his malfeasance. But heart-wrenching stories from families that lost loved ones provide a glimpse of the thousands of lives Cuomo apparently believed were expendable.
Again, if New York wants to maintain its congressional representation, it probably should stop playing fast and loose with its citizens' lives on the whims of a sleazy governor and his Democratic enablers.
Whether it is opportunity, freedom, decency, or the lives of their most vulnerable citizens, New York Democrats have proven time and time again they care little for protecting the things that matter. New York's loss of a congressional seat by a razor-thin margin of 89 people isn't a tragedy, it's a natural consequence—and yet another casualty—of Cuomo and his ilk's leadership.
The real tragedy remains New York Democrats' failure to lead in a way that doesn't come at the expense of their citizens' lives and liberties.