Andrew Cuomo, champion of females, tries to install a glass ceiling for Cynthia Nixon

by philg

“Cuomo and Nixon Spar in Debate: ‘Can You Stop Interrupting?’ ‘Can You Stop Lying?’” (nytimes) is a lot of fun. In “NY Gov. Andrew Cuomo says America ‘was never that great'” (CNN) nominated himself as champion for Americans who identify as female:

“We’re not going to make America great again. It was never that great,” Cuomo, a Democrat, remarked at a bill signing event in New York City. … “We will reach greatness when discrimination and stereotyping of women, 51% of our population, is gone, and every woman’s full potential is realized and unleashed and every woman is making her full contribution.”

His campaign of redressing female victimhood, however, won’t start until after he completes the installation of a glass ceiling over Cynthia Nixon’s head. From the latest nytimes:

Mr. Cuomo said Ms. Nixon lives in “the world of fiction.”

For Ms. Nixon, the actress and activist undertaking a long-shot challenge against a two-term incumbent, the debate offered her biggest stage yet in the race, and she used the spotlight to rip Mr. Cuomo as a “corrupt corporate Democrat” while promising an array of progressive policies she said he had bottled up in the last seven years.

“I’m not an Albany insider like Governor Cuomo, but experience doesn’t mean that much if you’re not actually good at governing,” she accused.

Mr. Cuomo sought to raise doubts about Ms. Nixon’s qualifications — she has never held elected office — to serve and succeed as governor, while simultaneously burnishing his own credentials.

“That’s the art of government. I can get it done,” he said at one point. At another, he told Ms. Nixon that “you don’t snap your fingers” and simply make things happen.

[Certainly under Cuomo’s leadership, New York State has reached the #1 position in terms of the percentage of residents’ incomes that is taxed away by state and local government (Tax Foundation; 12.7 percent versus 7.6 percent in Texas; i.e., the state needs 67 percent more in taxes to operate than Texas does, as a percentage of total income). Aren’t Cuomo’s statements about how he runs a sort-of-functional state government weak in light of what he spends? If I tell you that I was able to purchase a working 5-seat sedan for only $50,000 would you call me a hero of consumer prudence?]

These two Democrats can’t even agree on the right way to hate Donald Trump (their fellow New York Democrat for most of his life):

“No one has stood up to Donald Trump the way I have,” Mr. Cuomo said.

Ms. Nixon dismissed that idea entirely, quipping, “You stood up to him about as well as he stood up to Putin.”

To beat down this born-female member of the LGBTQ community that he champions, Cuomo takes a confusing position on accounting and taxation:

But Mr. Cuomo came determined to attack Ms. Nixon for her own finances. He hammered her for how many years of personal taxes she has released (five), and for routing her income through an S corporation, which he decried as a “loophole.” He returned to the topic over and over.

S corp profits flow right through to the individual taxpayer and are taxed at individual rates, so how is this a “loophole”? (Actually, though, maybe Ms. Nixon will get a big tax reduction under the 2017 tax bill that President Trump signed? That will enable some of her pass-through income to be exempt? She should interrupt her hatred of Donald Trump for long enough to send him a thank-you note?)

Readers: What do you make of this? Will voters notice the apparent contradiction between a cisgender male politician claiming to be working tirelessly to advance U.S. residents (not limited to “citizens” I hope!) who identify as “women” while simultaneously trying to prevent a cisgender female from taking his (unearned if he is a white male) place?

Related:

9 thoughts on “Andrew Cuomo, champion of females, tries to install a glass ceiling for Cynthia Nixon”

  4. There’s no glass ceiling involved. The salary of the governor of New York is $179,000. Nixon should be able to make a lot more than that in show business. Money is the most important thing in life.

    Also, the comparison with Texas and the expensive sedan is only valid if you assume that Texas and New York provide the same services to their residents. Texas is the state with the highest rate of people without health insurance. That’s due, in part, to a smaller Medicaid program.

  6. Nixon is very vulnerable in this campaign: she is exposed to an attack on her white privilege.

    Overall, her political strengths and weaknesses can be summarized as follows:
    + Female
    + Gay
    + Socialist
    – White
    – Cisgender
    – Non-Muslim
    – Documented

  8. Competence got nothing to do with this.

    IMHO, Cuomo ranks lower on all of the same factors:
    – Male
    – Straight
    – Not a democratic socialist (yet?)
    – White
    – Cisgender
    – Non-Muslim
    – Documented

    Not a single plus! However, he has two big things going for him:
    + has stable, observable hereditary traits
    + corrupt.

    Yes, being seen as both stable and corrupt is a definite plus in the State of NY: at least he knows his $ price, and–more importantly–so do others. The problem with Nixon is that she still has to discover how much she would be willing to accept; she is still hungry.

  9. I remember getting some tax advice as a contractor that I could reduce my overall taxes by using an S Corp. The idea is that while distributions and wages are taxed at the same rate, social security tax only applies to wages. But social security tax doesn’t apply to wages over a threshold, so for the idea to work, you have to officially pay yourself less than about $100,000 (and the IRS will complain if your wages look ridiculously low). And social security benefits are directly related to how much you’be paid in social security taxes over the years.

Comments are closed.