Conservative commentators were vindicated this week when a simple, brutal question from right-leaning reporter Cam Higby cut through the left’s happy talk about unlimited freebies: how will Zohran Mamdani pay for all of his programs if his “tax the rich” plans force wealthy taxpayers and businesses to flee New York? Dave Rubin and guests Michael Malice and Alex Stein rightly treated the DM clip as more than a gotcha — it exposed a core contradiction at the heart of modern progressive politics. The question landed because it asked the one thing the left rarely answers: where’s the money coming from and what happens when the producers leave?
Mamdani’s platform is unmistakably big-government: he’s proposed an additional city income tax on those earning more than $1 million and called for higher corporate taxes, pledging the revenue to fund free tuition at CUNY and SUNY, universal childcare, fare-free buses, and sweeping tenant protections. These ideas sound good to college kids and woke social media influencers, but they’re expensive, and the math matters — raising the top rates is supposed to generate billions, but only if the people paying those bills stay put and businesses don’t reorganize around lower-tax alternatives. Progressives love to promise plenty without ever explaining the economic reaction their policies will trigger.
Plenty of sober observers warned this would happen: when political leaders publicly threaten the wealthy and corporations, those taxpayers don’t just take their philanthropy offline — they can leave, relocate their headquarters, or move the jobs their workers depend on. New York officials and business owners have openly warned that radical tax hikes and hostile rhetoric could make companies and high-earners head for the exits, draining the city of revenue and opportunity the left assumes is guaranteed. That’s not fearmongering; it’s basic economics and a preview of what happens when policy punishes success.
Even Democratic establishment figures realized the electoral and economic peril. Governor Kathy Hochul has signaled she won’t embrace all of Mamdani’s plans and even suggested she would work to block tax hikes that would destabilize the business climate — proof that the left’s grassroots radicals don’t speak for the political class when the stakes get real. The backpedaling shows the political limits of class-warfare politics when confronted with the practical consequences their policies would produce.
Conservatives should make no apology for pointing out that taxing success into extinction is not compassion, it is a recipe for decline. The DM clip made a simple point plain to hardworking New Yorkers: you can promise utopia on other people’s money until the people with that money leave, and then the promises evaporate. Voters deserve leaders who respect entrepreneurs, protect jobs, and present realistic budgets — not ideological zealots who treat the private sector as an ATM.
This moment is a chance for patriots to press their neighbors and elected officials: do you want a city that rewards risk and builds prosperity, or one that punishes achievement and shrinks its tax base? Ask the same blunt question Higby asked every politician promising largesse — and demand an answer that includes honest math, real accountability, and respect for the people who actually fund public services.
