Why New York Will Not Get Much Help From the New Democratic Congress

Steve Malanga reports:

New York Democrats consistently vote against tax cuts, which might leave billions of dollars here and reverse the flow-of-funds deficit. They mostly argue that Washington should be sending more money to the state and city via federal programs.

But that argument rarely gains much traction in Washington. New York's federal spending deficit is largely the result of a lack of defense contracts here - the state (and even more so, the city) simply don't have much of a defense industry. Another big issue: New York sees less than the average in Social Security payments because retirees are more likely to move out than move in.

And on the social programs often touted by the New York Democratic delegation, the state and city already get more than their fair share, and aren't going to cash in much more.

Moynihan's yearly studies of federal spending typically found New York ranked No. 1 in per-capita spending for social programs. By contrast, Mississippi (to take Rangel's example) got about 25 percent less per-capita in social-program spending, although Mississippi has a higher poverty rate than New York.

The city, in particular, already gets a huge premium from this spending. The last time I broke it down, I found that the city received nearly four times the national per-capita average of welfare expenditures, three times the average in Medicaid and twice the average in subsidized-housing spending. Per capita, New York got far more than other major cities like Los Angeles and Chicago.

So don't expect any big new pot of gold for New York from a Democratic Congress. About all we can expect are a few new scraps of pork.

Heh.