Submitted by Don Carlson, Dec 19, 2007 14:06

Rich Michael Bloomberg, independent demagogue, asks what the citizens of New York City would surrender in governmental services in order to be relieved of onerous taxes. Well, let's begin: safe streets? What streets in New York city are safe that are not surrounded by the homes of the well-heeled? Clean streets? What streets in the city are clean that are not in the neighborhoods of the well-heeled? Safe, clean, dependable public transportation? What transportation in the city is clean, dependable, and safe--let alone affordable--except (in part) the cross-town buses in the 'better' parts of Manhattan?

The citizens of New York who are not exceptionally well-off do not now get what they are paying for, and yet we hear from the Republican-Mayor-that-was a typically Democratic dirge---the programs and services will work when you are willing to pay for them. How much more? We'll know when they start working.

It would seem that to Bloomberg everything is hunky-dory except the funding, and that there is no thinking needed--certainly of the reform sort. We must merely choose to pay. There is no other choice. And if we do not choose to go along, there is always this sort of political extortion that New Yorkers are so very used to from past Democratic administrations.

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