Gov. Andrew Cuomo is calling for a bipartisan, united front against Trump Administration policies he says are threatening New Yorkers.
The governor’s plea was directed at New York’s congressional delegation and comes in response to President Trump’s call for an $800 billion decrease to the Medicaid program — the heaviest cut among his $4.1 trillion 2018 budget proposal titled “A New Foundation for American Greatness.”
Cuomo outlined the potential damage that health care cuts could have at an event marking the opening of the John R. Oishei Children’s Hospital on the Buffalo Niagara Medical Campus. He noted that 66 percent of the patients that will fill the new hospital will be Medicaid reimbursable recipients.
Another troublesome proposal for Cuomo and other state leaders is the elimination of the Child Health Insurance Program which would take health care away from 13,000 kids in western New York alone, Cuomo said.
“We need our people to stand up now and stop these federal assaults on New York,” Cuomo said. “You’re New Yorkers, put your politics aside and stop these proposals that will decimate this state and let’s do it now.”
Trump’s tax proposal would also removes the deductability of state and local taxes meaning New Yorkers would face a higher taxation rate than ever before. The situation is especially worrisome for New York because it has some of the highest property taxes in the United States.
“It is a death blow to New York,” Cuomo said. “It is Washington’s attempt to cut taxes in other parts of the country by using New York as a piggy bank, and that is something we cannot allow to happen.”
He is urging New York’s congressional delegation to stand together in order to stop the budget proposals.
“We have a saying in Albany, we’re Democrats, we’re Republicans, [but] we’re New Yorkers first,” Cuomo said.
