Across the nation, citizen safety is a top issue

0:00 Speaker 1 Sunday morning, three days away from the election. Where the heck are we well with us? Today? This Sunday morning, we have Rehan Salaam and he is with the Manhattan Institute in charge of policy research, and he’s the president. Well, wee hunt, Sunday morning.

0:23 Speaker 2 How do you feel?

0:24 Speaker 3 You know what? I think this is going to be a squeaker. This is going to be a really close election nationally. What I’m really looking at, though, is what’s happening here in New York City and New York State.

0:35 And the reason is that I think there’s a kind of political revolution brewing here in the Five boroughs. I think there are a lot of people who fundamentally care about common sense solutions. They reject the extremes. What they see is failure after failure of a local government that’s been sucking up tax dollars but not actually delivering for

0:56 ordinary blue collar people, for people who are building big businesses. This city is bleeding people. Relative to the last census. You know, it looks like we’ve lost about five hundred thousand people. Maybe that’s an undercount, maybe that’s an overcount.

1:09 We don’t know exactly, but we’ve lost a lot of the energetic, ambitious strivers who make the city.

1:14 Speaker 1 You lost five hundred thousand people that were probably making four or five hundred thousand dollars a year, maybe a net worth of over aminion, and you replaced them with migrants that want to, you know, eat from us.

1:31 Speaker 3 So that’s the really tricky thing. We’ve absolutely lost some affluent folks. But the way I see this is a little bit different. The thing that I’m worried about is that this city is bleeding the dreamers and strivers, those middle class people who want to get ahead and make something of themselves. And what they’re seeing is that if

1:48 I live here, if I stay here, I can’t save a dime. If I live here and I’m really doing my best, I’m working as hard as I can, even if I’m making a decent salary, it’s getting eaten up by taxes. It’s getting eaten up by the cost of living.

2:02 And that’s absolutely brutal when you lose those ambitious people who are the ones who create those jobs and who help other people achieve their dreams.

2:10 Speaker 2 People like you. We hunt.

2:12 Speaker 1 You are in charge of themen Hattan is to policy and research. I’m gonna ask you a question, Uh, New York has twenty twenty one million people. Florida has twenty twenty one million people. If we’re sitting here in New York City right now, the budget to run the state in the city is I guess two forty and ten

2:37 three hundred and fifty a billion dollars, And to run twenty one million people in Florida is like one hundred, one hundred and ten. Where does the rest of the money go?

2:48 Speaker 3 Well, John, it’s actually even worse than that. Okay, So if you look at public education, for example, Florida is spending a fraction of what we’re spending, and they’re actually getting way better results. They’re getting way better results for immigrant kids, for black and brown kids, for kids from high poverty households. They’re delivering at a lower cost than

3:09 we are. And instead, what we’re doing is we’ve been bleeding families with kids under the age of five. Our public school enrollment is down by over a tenth, and yet we still have the bloat. We still have all of those union jobs, we still have all of that staff.

3:25 What are they doing? What are we doing with those dollars?

3:28 Speaker 2 I don’t know?

3:29 Speaker 1 And our education system has dropped to number thirty in the world. I mean, we’re spending the most on a per student basis in the world and we’re number thirty.

3:41 Speaker 3 You know, when you’re looking at education, this is the big scandal when you were you know, think back to that period between the early nineties and about twenty thirteen. This was a time when education in the United States actually improved quite a bit. Maybe didn’t improve as quickly as we wanted it to, but it improved. If you

3:59 look at the share of kids who are below basic in terms of their reading level, in nineteen ninety it was about forty six percent. Was crazily high. Then it went down to the mid twenties. Okay, that was a big improvement. Now it’s back up to the mid thirties.

4:13 We’ve given up half of the gains we made over twenty years. And is anyone paying attention. You’re paying attention, I’m paying attention. Anyone who has kids is paying attention. But at the national level, what we need is common sense solutions, and instead New York City and New York State, it’s all being run by the unions. It’s all being

4:31 run by people who want to enrich the basically the folks who are part of this political machine rather than actually serving those kids who are going to be the workers and entrepreneurs of the next generation.

4:43 Speaker 2 See what I don’t understand.

4:44 Speaker 1 We’re spending in New York City like six billion dollars for the migrants. Don’t you think we should take care of the American veterans first, or take care of the American poor first? Are inner city kids? Okay?

4:59 Speaker 3 You know this is an absolutely crazy situation. You know, you’ve got Mayor Adams who is rattling the tin cup and saying to Joe Biden, Hey, Joe Biden, come solve the problem for me. And Joe Biden said, look, you guys have this right to shelter. Okay, you and New York City decided you made a deal with some local

5:16 pressure groups that said we’re gonna automatically give shelter to anybody who asks for it, even if they’re people who do not belong lawfully in this country. Okay, you ask anyone. I don’t care if they have a Republican next to their name a Democrat next to their name. You ask any ordinary blue collar, middle class guy. You know where

5:34 I grew up. I grew up in Brooklyn. I grew up in Borough Park and Kensington. Okay, you ask any of my neighbors that I grew up with, whatever party they vote for, does that make any sense to you at all that we’re gonna spend three hundred plus dollars a night for hotel rooms and in some cases you’re

5:49 actually seeing gangs emerging out of these hotels. It’s crazy stuff.

5:54 Speaker 1 It is crazy stuff. The quality of life in New York City has gone down substantially. And I’ve said that to the governor. I said that to the mayor. I said that with the bail law that you have, this thirty three hundred criminals, according to the police NYPD repeat criminals like ten arrests, twenty arrests, thirty arrest I said

6:22 to the politicians, after how many arrests are you gonna put them away? You know, some of them need to be put in mental institutions, some of them have to be put in prison, but you got to get them off the streets.

6:34 Speaker 3 Okay, you and I have something in common. You know, we’ve got daughters. Okay. I love New York City. I bleed New York City. I was born here. I’m gonna die here. Okay, just like my father died here. I love this town. But the thing is, if you do not get crime right, if people don’t feel as though their daughters will be

6:50 safe at ten thirty pm on the subway, the city’s going to die. That’s the magic of this town. And if you don’t get the basics right, it’s over right.

7:01 Speaker 1 Hent it’s getting there. Nobody walks around at night that that feels safe. I turned around and I looked behind me, and I look in front of me. I looked at my side, and walking around at night is I don’t remember.

7:17 Speaker 2 We used to go to Dwayne Read.

7:18 Speaker 1 We used to go to all the supermarkets, all the drug stores till midnight, twenty four hours a day, and we felt safe.

7:27 Speaker 2 Now nobody feels safe anymore.

7:28 Speaker 3 But we can’t give up. That’s the thing, John, That’s what I’m not getting right. That’s what you’ve demonstrated. You have built a great American business here. You have created an enormous opportunity and wealth for a ton of folks in this town. And we need more people like you.

7:42 And the whole question is, if you’re in your thirties, if you’re in your forties, if you want to be the next John Katzimatitas, Are you going to stick around? We need those people to do that. That’s why we need to turn the ship around fast.

7:51 Speaker 1 We’re almost at a time three days to the election. I urge everybody to vote for common sense. Thank you so much, and let’s do it again.

8:02 Speaker 3 Wilson, Thank you, John. It’s an honor.