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  Meet Bill de Blasio, the Obama of New York
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ContributorJed 
Last EditedJed  Sep 10, 2013 10:33pm
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CategoryOpinion
AuthorIra Stoll
News DateWednesday, September 11, 2013 04:00:00 AM UTC0:0
DescriptionBeyond the biographical coincidences, and more importantly, the two politicians seem to be following the same political and policy playbook. They want to raise taxes on the rich to fund health-care and education sectors whose government-spending-reliant growth they are unwilling to restrain. While for Obama and perhaps de Blasio, that’s been a path to political success, or at least election and re-election, it’s a policy that also comes with considerable costs and risks.

De Blasio’s signature policy proposal is an income tax increase for New York City residents who earn more than $500,000 a year, with the proceeds directed to public education. President Obama ran on asking “millionaires and billionaires” to pay higher taxes, in part to fund his Obamacare subsidies for health insurance.

But de Blasio likes health care spending, too. He’s been fighting to keep city hospitals open, even if there’s insufficient patient demand to support them. And Obama likes education spending, too; he has ramped up Pell Grant spending and called in a State of the Union speech for exactly the expanded pre-kindergarten programs that de Blasio is campaigning to bring to New York.
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