Cuomo Blames State Senate For Not Enacting His Progressive Agenda

The reason why the State Senate is not in Democratic hands is because Andrew Cuomo helped Republicans and the Independent Democratic Caucus to keep control of it.

Yesterday Cuomo responded to criticism that he is not progressive enough by blaming the State Senate for failing to enact his "progessive agenda":

“I support public finance, I support the Dream Act,” he said. “The Womens’ Equality Act is my act, right? The problem is not that I don’t support it.

“The problem is that I can’t get it passed because we don’t have a Senate that supports it. So the answer would be elect people to the legislative body that support the initiatives that you want passed.”

“That's the obvious extension of that. Well, I should force them to do what they don’t want to do? You know, that’s not really the role of a governor. It’s not really possible at the end of the day. Public finance, it’s a close vote, but we don’t have the vote,” he said.

Cuomo compared the opposition to the controversy over abortion, where lawmakers have settled opinions and are unlikely to change their minds.

“Public finance is not one of these issues where we don’t know the facts,” he said. “The opposition is heartfelt, deep opposition. And by the way it’s a controversial issue among the people of the state. It is not a slam dunk that everybody knows public financing’s great, you know?”

“Issues like choice, these people have heartfelt positions on choice, so it’s not that I can go to someone and say ‘Let me explain the facts,’” he said.

Let's think about all the laws, commissions and proposals he's shoved through even though there was resistance on the part of some Albany politicians.

The Safe Act.

Gay Marriage.

Charter School protections.

The Moreland Commission.

The truth is, if Cuomo wanted the Dream Act the way he wanted the Safe Act or gay marriage or charter school protections, he would have threatened enough Albany pols with destruction to get that through.

He didn't do that because he didn't really want the Dream Act.

Same goes for public financing of campaigns and all the other "progressive" parts of his agenda that he claims wasn't enacted because of resistance in the State Senate.

If he had wanted those things, you can bet they would have happened.