Gov. Cuomo Shreds McConnell, FL Sen. Rick Scott for Opposing Bailout: ‘We Bail Them Out Every Year!’ ‘How Dare They!?’

Governor Andrew Cuomo blasted Republican senators on Wednesday for suggesting that New York and other states should declare bankruptcy instead of doing more with Congress to provide coronavirus aid to states.

For about a week, there’s been a lot of commotion about the interview Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell gave to Hugh Hewitt where he suggested that states dealing with viral outbreaks should be allowed to seek bankruptcy protections instead of a federal bailout. As Cuomo held his daily coronavirus response update on Wednesday, he accused of McConnell of making the matter “blatantly political” and asked “what is he trying to say?”

“The states that have coronavirus are Democratic states, and he’s a Republican. So he doesn’t want to help the Democratic states,” said Cuomo. “First, states have never gone bankrupt. States can’t go bankrupt. There are serious constitutional questions about whether or not a state can declare bankruptcy, and you’d need a federal law that would allow the states to declare bankruptcy…So if he believed that, if it wasn’t just political rhetoric and personal vitriol, then pass a law that allows states to declare bankruptcy. He would have to do that, and I dare him to do that.”

Cuomo went on to decry the “ugly sentiment” from people like Florida Senator Rick Scott (R) who oppose a bailout for blue states contending with viral outbreaks. This led to the governor hitting back and saying “New York state bails them out every year. They’re not bailing us out. We bail them out every year.”

“New York state pays $29 billion into the federal pot, $29 billion more every year that we never get back…Every year we put in $29 billion more than we take out. On the other hand, they take out every year $37 billion more than they pay to the federal government! Senator Mitch Mcconnell, you are bailing out New York? When every year you take out more from the kitty, the federal pot, $37 billion more than you put in? Who is bailing out whom? Senator Scott, you’re going to bail us out? You take out $30 billion more every year than you pay in. How dare they! How dare they when those are the facts! How long are you going to play the American people and assume they’re stupid?”

Cuomo continued by decrying “Washington double speak” and arguing that the federal government’s relief packages show they care more about funding “corporate America” instead of funding local organizations hit the most by the pandemic.

Watch above, via MSNBC.