When NBC’s Kristen Welker bluntly asked House Democratic Leader Hakeem Jeffries whether Zohran Mamdani’s promises — a rent freeze, free buses and universal child care — could actually be delivered, Jeffries’ answer was anything but reassuring. He conceded that such sweeping moves would depend on the Rent Guidelines Board and cooperation from the Governor and state legislature, a tacit admission that the mayor’s podium doesn’t equal dictatorial power to rewrite budgets overnight.

That awkward exchange exposed the fundamental truth about Mamdani’s pitch: it’s political theater dressed up as policy. Mamdani’s campaign has been built on the catchy triad of freezing rent-stabilized units, making city buses fare-free and providing free childcare for young children — promises that sound great on a stump but carry massive practical obstacles.

Those obstacles aren’t theoretical. A mayor cannot unilaterally freeze rents for all New Yorkers — the Rent Guidelines Board, with staggered, mayor-appointed seats and state-level entanglements, controls stabilized rent increases — and the vast bus system is run by the state-controlled MTA, not City Hall. Even Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul publicly pushed back on the free-bus plan, underscoring that real-world implementation requires political allies Jeffries admitted would have to be on board.

Conservatives warned this would happen: populist promises appeal in a crowded media clip, but the bill for fantasy policy falls on the middle class and the small businesses who keep the city running. The more important question Welker’s question revealed is why senior Democrats continue to flirt with radical economic nostrums without offering voters honest accounting of the costs and tradeoffs involved.

Jeffries’ halting response should have been a wake-up call to his party. Instead of tough answers, national Democrats have offered soothing rhetoric about “affordability” while sidestepping the nitty-gritty realities of budgets, governance, and incentives. That evasiveness is the real scandal — selling expansive freebies while leaving working Americans to pick up the tab is a political sleight of hand that will hollow out services and drive out the tax base if enacted.

Patriotic conservatives aren’t arguing against helping struggling families; we’re arguing against bankrupting the city and destroying incentives that create jobs, housing and opportunity. Welker’s simple question and Jeffries’ squirming answer exposed a larger truth: when ideology leads, pragmatism and responsibility lose, and ordinary New Yorkers pay the price while the political class congratulates itself on being “progressive.”