{"id":2623174,"date":"2026-07-03T08:05:37","date_gmt":"2026-07-03T12:05:37","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mamdani-is-telling-a-brazen-lie-about-capitalist-mismanagement-of-new-york\/"},"modified":"2026-07-03T08:12:13","modified_gmt":"2026-07-03T12:12:13","slug":"mamdani-is-telling-a-brazen-lie-about-capitalist-mismanagement-of-new-york","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/mamdani-is-telling-a-brazen-lie-about-capitalist-mismanagement-of-new-york\/","title":{"rendered":"Mamdani Is Lying About &#8216;Capitalist Mismanagement&#8217; Of New York"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"float:left\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">18<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fmamdani-is-telling-a-brazen-lie-about-capitalist-mismanagement-of-new-york%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2623174&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>New York City Mayor Zohran Mamdani, a young and charismatic democratic socialist, claims that his recent $126 billion city budget represents a solution to years of capitalist mismanagement. He cites friedrich Hayek to suggest socialists understand economics as well as capitalists and have the capacity to resolve economic issues through socialist principles. However, criticisms arise regarding the legitimacy of this claim, pointing out that the budget relied heavily on an $8 billion bailout, deferred pension payments, and questionable spending priorities, including funding for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/toronto-public-library-eliminates-late-fees-to-combat-racial-inequity\/\" title=\"Toronto Public Library Eliminates Late Fees To Combat Racial Inequity\">drag queen story hours<\/a> and transgender programs that surpass veterans\u2019 services. <\/p>\n<p>Compared to Florida&#8217;s $114 billion state budget-which spends slightly less but boasts superior education and services-the NYC budget appears extravagant. Florida&#8217;s economy is booming, attracting residents from New York, which has experienced a downturn. The article highlights that New York&#8217;s fiscal crises stem from past socialist policies, such as excessive social programs and high municipal employment, which contributed to near bankruptcy in 1975. Mayor Mamdani\u2019s predecessor, Bill de Blasio, who expanded city spending considerably, left office with a compromised budget, largely due to pandemic-related expenditures.<\/p>\n<p>The article also contrasts Mamdani\u2019s claims with the track record of previous mayors like Michael Bloomberg, a billionaire known for responsible fiscal management by funding pension plans and maintaining balanced budgets.the critique suggests Mamdani\u2019s assertions about socialism\u2019s success oversimplify complex fiscal realities and ignore the costly consequences of past policies.The piece concludes with skepticism about Mamdani\u2019s honesty and warns of continued misinformation if such narratives persist.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>Like him or despise him, New York Mayor Zohran Mamdani is a good politician. He\u2019s young, charismatic, and has a high-wattage smile. This is why after passing a $126 billion \u201cbalanced\u201d city budget, he can get away with saying things such as, \u201cSocialists just solved years of Capitalist mismanagement.\u201d He elaborated further on this theme:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Throughout this process I have been reminded of the words of the Austrian economist, Friedrich Hayek, \u2018if socialists understood economics, they wouldn\u2019t be socialists,\u2019\u201d said Mr. Mamdani, the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/jewish-fdny-commissioner-to-resign-after-mamdani-wins-election\/\" title=\"Jewish FDNY commissioner to resign after Mamdani wins election\">democratic socialist mayor<\/a>. \u201cIf these past months have shown us anything, it is that socialists not only understand economics just as well as the capitalists who came before, but that we can solve their years of mismanagement through an embrace of our principles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Being that this is a pretty arrogant statement, it\u2019s worth asking what, exactly, has Mamdani done that would allow him to pretend that passing a budget \u2014 one of the most basic requirements of governance \u2014 is both a triumphal victory and a rebuke of capitalism? <\/p>\n<p>First, some basic facts about New York city\u2019s latest budget \u2014 the city is spending $126 billion for a single fiscal year. The budget was only made possible by an $8 billion bailout from the state government and deferred pension payments. According to one New York city fiscal analyst who\u2019s bending over backwards to be fair to Mamdani, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.centernyc.org\/reports-briefs\/2026\/5\/21\/using-the-pension-fund-to-close-the-citys-budget-gap\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">this has prompted<\/a> \u201cconcerns that the re-amortization [of pension payments] could set the city up for extraordinary problems. \u2026 The Mayor who offered a promise in his inaugural address to overcome every moment of fiscal challenge with \u2018ambition, not austerity\u2019 may well find himself in contradiction to that pledge.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The budget is basically a hellbroth of fiscal time bombs and all kinds of deeply questionable priorities. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2026\/06\/30\/nyregion\/mamdani-budget-nyc.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">The New York Times reports<\/a> Mamdani and the city council president \u201cfought until the final hours\u201d over how to handle a city rental assistance program \u201cwhose <a href=\"https:\/\/amzn.to\/3YuVZYV\" >parabolic cost growth caused widespread alarm<\/a>.\u201d The ultimate resolution of that dispute somehow \u201cexpands eligibility for the rental vouchers,\u201d so I have my doubts the concerns about parabolic cost growth are over. And if you want to dig into the budget, there\u2019s all kinds of things that reflect a bunch of insane priorities. For instance, the budget funnels $7 million to drag queen story hours and transgender programs, which as city councilwoman <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/VickieforNYC\/status\/2072473558786134098\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">Vickie Paladino notes<\/a>, is more than the budget spends on veterans\u2019 services. Oh and after facing pressure from NYC\u2019s Democratic Socialists of America, Mamdani\u2019s budget is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.foxnews.com\/us\/mamdani-walks-back-plan-increase-nypd-headcount-following-dsa-pressure\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">defunding the a promised increase in the city\u2019s police force<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>For comparison, the budget for the entire state of Florida, which has a population about three times New York City, is $114 billion. Further, the state\u2019s most recent budget is actually <a href=\"https:\/\/www.flsenate.gov\/PublishedContent\/Offices\/President\/Budget_Release_and_Summary_Combined.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">spending slightly less than the previous year<\/a>. And despite spending less money than New York City, Florida\u2019s education system and services are superior to New York\u2019s pretty much across the board.<\/p>\n<p>I\u2019m pretty sure the guy who\u2019s been governor of Florida for the last eight years and the majority of the state legislature would undoubtedly consider themselves believers in capitalist principles. For one thing, Florida has no state income tax and so most of its revenue comes from taxes on economic activity in the state, which is booming in no small part because people and businesses are flocking to Florida. In the last decade, Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/www.ntu.org\/foundation\/detail\/florida-continues-to-attract-new-residents-new-york-california-and-illinois-lose-the-most-population\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">gained $196 billion in net adjusted gross income<\/a> (AGI), while New York state lost $111 billion in AGI. Just two counties in South Florida <a href=\"https:\/\/fortune.com\/article\/new-york-city-income-real-estate-business-miami-palm-beach\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">hoovered up $9 billion in income directly from people fleeing New York City<\/a> in the last five years.<\/p>\n<p>At least New York city did pass a balanced budget, but that\u2019s not something Mamdani can take credit for. The city is required to pass balanced budgets as a result of the 1975 fiscal crisis. Per Wikipedia, which I am citing just because it is not exactly known for laundering right-wing opinions, the \u201975 fiscal crisis was an outgrowth of a crisis from a decade earlier:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>An earlier fiscal crisis in 1966 had prompted the city to enact\u00a0Keynesian\u00a0measures\u2014i.e., increasing spending to spur economic activity. The city financed an extensive network of\u00a0social safety nets, including free college at the\u00a0City University of New York\u00a0and low-cost transit. Previous attempts to reduce these benefits had resulted in riots, as in 1971, when residents of\u00a0Brownsville, Brooklyn, rioted after hearing of a proposed 10% decrease to welfare benefits. \u2026 Another contributing factor were extensive benefits for municipal staff, which had been granted to various city government departments to avert further strikes.\u00a0Municipal employment had increased over the years while employment in other sectors declined sharply,\u00a0and \u201cservice, government, and financial\u201d jobs made up 46% of the city\u2019s total employment by 1968, up from 35% in 1950.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>There were other contributing factors; obviously, the depressed national economic environment in the mid-70s didn\u2019t help. But if the 1975 fiscal crisis was caused by the misguided belief that government spending could fix lackluster economic growth (a particular idea that Hayek, who won a Nobel Prize in economics back when it meant something, spent much of his career persuasively refuting), half of New York working for the city government while the private sector was shrinking, and an inability to cut overly generous social programs, this tells us one thing pretty clearly \u2014 the most dire economic problems in the city\u2019s history, which still dictate how Mamdani governs, <em>were directly caused by socialism<\/em>.<\/p>\n<p>But hey, Mamdani said socialism \u201csolved years of Capitalist mismanagement\u201d not decades, right? I still don\u2019t know how that\u2019s a credible assertion. Mamdani\u2019s predecessor in Gracie Mansion was Eric Adams. Maybe a moderate-ish Democrat like Adams is the DSA\u2019s version of a capitalist running-dog, but I don\u2019t think that portrayal of Adams\u2019 somewhat dysfunctional single-term in office survives contact with reality. Adams\u2019 single largest budget challenge was the rapid increase in costs caused by President Biden leaving the border open, leading to a rapid influx of migrants in need of services from the city. The official NYC Democratic Socialist position on immigration is abolishing America\u2019s border control agency, so I don\u2019t think Mamdani can credibly blame Adams\u2019 for \u201ccapitalist mismanagement,\u201d when abolishing borders is a socialist idea.<\/p>\n<p>The mayor prior to Adams, was Bill de Blasio, a self-described socialist, natch, who grew the city\u2019s budget 35-40 percent over the course of his two-terms, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/bill-de-blasios-budget-blowout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">more than doubling city spending<\/a> in inflation adjusted terms relative to what it spent in 1980. The only reason why de Blasio didn\u2019t create a full-on crisis of his own was the city was experiencing a massive economic boom throughout most of his tenure.<\/p>\n<p>But by the end, the problems of de Blasio\u2019s budget busting were all too obvious. He left office in 2021 in the middle of the COVID crash, and the city\u2019s budget was in such bad shape it was \u201cbalanced\u201d with such fiscal chicanery as funding permanent programs with temporary federal COVID stimulus spending. If Mamdani can claim this current budget substantially fixes the city\u2019s woes \u2014 and you should have serious doubts it does \u2014 much of what he\u2019s fixing here is not \u201ccapitalist mismanagement,\u201d it\u2019s the grossly irresponsible spending of the proud socialist mayor that ruled for most of the preceding decade.<\/p>\n<p>Now let\u2019s look at the last \u201ccapitalist\u201d mayor of New York. Michael Bloomberg was a billionaire no less, and even once upon a time, a Republican. Bloomberg inherited a $6 billion budget deficit that, in fairness to Rudy Giuliani before him, was in no small part caused by the economic damage of 9\/11. Despite being a greedy capitalist, somehow Bloomberg was also a very profligate spender who did not exactly force the city into austerity, increasing the city budget from about <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nyc.gov\/assets\/omb\/downloads\/pdf\/tech2_02.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$42 billion<\/a> to <a href=\"https:\/\/cbcny.org\/research\/where-money-going\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">$72 billion<\/a>. This included things such as <a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Mayoralty_of_Michael_Bloomberg\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">43% cumulative salary increase<\/a> for teachers and many other things it\u2019s hard to imagine socialists complaining about.<\/p>\n<p>However, Bloomberg\u2019s single biggest driver of costs was because <em>drum roll please<\/em> <a href=\"https:\/\/www.city-journal.org\/article\/bill-de-blasios-budget-blowout\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">he actually funded the city\u2019s ballooning pension plans<\/a>, along with the health care and other generous benefits given to city employees. We\u2019re six months into Mamdani\u2019s grand socialist tenure and he\u2019s already punting on this issue. And finally, despite the spending growth under his mayoralty, Bloomberg left with the fiscal house in order and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.cbsnews.com\/newyork\/news\/mayor-bloomberg-mayor-elect-de-blasio-to-get-balanced-budget\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">de Blasio was the first New York mayor in decades who did not inherit a budget deficit<\/a>. We\u2019re clearing a low-bar, but of the mayors this century, the capitalist billionaire was far and away the most fiscally responsible.<\/p>\n<p>Anyway, I don\u2019t expect much of the media, but when Mamdani goes out of his way to crow about the superiority of socialism while insulting perhaps the most influential economist of the 20th century and blaming capitalists for the supposed offense of attempting to making money in a state that confiscates the <a href=\"https:\/\/taxfoundation.org\/data\/all\/state\/state-local-tax-collections-per-capita\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">most tax revenue per capita<\/a>, well, some context is probably in order. It turns out budgets contain numbers and they are really easy to fact check.<\/p>\n<p>Regardless, if this episode as any indication of what\u2019s to come \u2014 Mamdani is going to continue to lie, and do so with impunity.  <\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Mark Hemingway is the Book Editor at The Federalist, and was formerly a senior writer at The Weekly Standard. Follow him on Twitter at <b><a href=\"http:\/\/www.twitter.com\/heminator\">@heminator<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Mamdani claims socialism fixed NYC\u2019s fiscal mess, but facts tell a different story<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":274,"featured_media":2623175,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Mamdani.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[33651],"tags":[82141,38770,56552,72620,41685],"class_list":["post-2623174","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-western-journal","tag-capitalistmismanagement","tag-economicpolicy","tag-mamdani","tag-newyork","tag-politicalcontroversy"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/07\/Mamdani.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623174","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/274"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2623174"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623174\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2623178,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2623174\/revisions\/2623178"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2623175"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2623174"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2623174"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2623174"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}