New York Democrat Tom Suozzi: 'I Disagree Wholeheartedly With Zohran Mamdani' On Increasing Taxes

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Rep. Tom Suozzi (D-NY) discusses New York City Democratic mayoral candidate Assemblyman Zohran Mamdani.

Transcript

00:00I'm probably not going to say anything.

00:02Well, I want to ask you about redistricting, because there's a talk about...

00:05The Texas Republicans are trying to add five seats.

00:08So let's talk about New York.

00:10Democrats fighting back in New York.

00:12Do you think that's a good idea for New York Democrats?

00:14Probably not. You know, I'll have to wait and see what happens.

00:16But the reality is that we're...

00:18Democrats are going to face a big challenge come 2030.

00:22When the census is done in 2030, we're going to lose seats in New York,

00:25we're going to lose seats in California, we're going to lose seats in Illinois,

00:27we're going to lose seats in Michigan,

00:29we're going to lose seats in a lot of Democratic states.

00:31And the idea of the blue wall is no longer going to exist.

00:33So we have to figure out how to make the blue states more attractive,

00:38so that the population, which is rising so rapidly,

00:41in places like Florida and Texas and North Carolina,

00:44are not overtaking us.

00:46Because it's going to result in a big political problem

00:49for Democrats in the country,

00:51unless we start making our states more attractive to people

00:53who want to move there.

00:54But in terms of the maps and the next...

00:56for this midterms, would it be problematic for a Democrat like you

00:59if they change them in New York?

01:01I don't see that happening, but I'm not privy to the insider conversations.

01:07You think they should wait, not do that before 2026, change the maps in New York?

01:11Well, traditionally, people do this every 10 years after the census,

01:14so that seems like the normal thing to me,

01:17but I'm not aware of any efforts to try and do it right now.

01:19Lastly, how problematic could Mondani make the midterms for Democrats?

01:24Well, you know, I want to make it very clear that I'm a Democratic capitalist.

01:27I'm not a Democratic Socialist.

01:29And I think that Mondani's philosophy of raising taxes,

01:33which would make New York City less attractive than it is right now.

01:37People are leaving New York and going to Florida and Texas.

01:40Why? Because their taxes are lower.

01:42Now, our taxes are higher because we have better wages for our teachers

01:45and better wages for our cops and better wages for our firefighters

01:48and civil service workers in our different unions.

01:51They have lower wages in Florida and Texas.

01:53We have a lower rate of uninsured children,

01:55a lower rate of uninsured adults, some of the lowest in the nation.

01:58Texas and Florida have some of the highest rates of uninsured children, uninsured adults.

02:02So that's why our taxes are higher.

02:04But we have to recognize that our high tax burden in New York State

02:08is making it less and less attractive.

02:10I disagree wholeheartedly with Zoran Mondani that he wants to increase the taxes further.

02:16Are you going to endorse a candidate in the race room?

02:18I haven't decided to.

02:19Thanks.

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