Erin Burnett to Mamdani: ‘You’re Not Looking at Some Soviet Union Grocery Stores on Every Corner?’

RUSH TRANSCRIPT:
>> All right. So now can we talk about the policy. The policy is what stood out to a lot of people. But like I said, the freezing, the freezing rents on half of the apartments, free bus service, the free childcare and the city run grocery stores. How do you pay for that?
>> Let‘s go through it. So for the first thing, freezing the rent, that‘s not something that requires any fiscal output from the city. It‘s something that‘s determined by the rent guidelines board, composed of nine members. The mayor picks each of those members. They determine each year whether rents rise or whether they stay the same. The previous mayoral administration froze the rent three times. So this has clear historical precedent when it comes to city run growth.
>> So you‘re saying Adams?
>> No, this is prior.
>> Okay.
>> Adams. He‘s he‘s the current one who has raised it 9% on those same New Yorkers pushing them out of their homes, city run grocery stores. I‘ve proposed a pilot program of one store in each borough. These are five stores in total. The total cost of this is $60 million. This is less than half the cost of what the city has already set to spend on a subsidy program for corporate supermarkets. That has no guarantee of cheaper prices or collective bargaining agreements, or even accepting.
>> So you‘re not looking at some, like Soviet Union grocery stores on every corner that are going to be run by the government.
>> No, what I‘m looking at is how to solve the very clear twin crises of affordability. When you go to the grocery store and food deserts, which disproportionately impact black and brown New Yorkers across the five boroughs where I‘ve heard directly from New Yorkers who say, why is it that I can find six fast food restaurants in a five block radius, but I can‘t find a place to buy groceries.
>> But five but five boroughs? Five grocery stores? But that can‘t be the goal.
>> Well, I mean, the idea.
>> Is the goal. You want them on every I mean, not, I mean, but in New York things do go. There‘s a nail salon every corner. There‘s grocery store on almost every other corner.
>> I think ultimately I‘m guided by outcomes. If this pilot succeeds in guaranteeing cheaper groceries, I think it will be, then yes, it should scale up. If it doesn‘t succeed, then no, it shouldn‘t, because what New Yorkers want are results. And when it comes to making busses free and universal childcare, these are things that cost around $700 million and let‘s say about 5 or $6 billion significant amounts of.
>> Money, huge amounts.
>> Of money, but have to be understood in the context of a $113 billion municipal budget, a $252 billion state budget. And we put forward a plan to pay for these and more to start Trump proofing our city through two major revenue streams, increasing the top corporate tax rate of New York to match that of New Jersey. That raises $5 billion and increasing income taxes on the top 1% of New Yorkers who make $1 million or more a year by 2%. both of these things after they come to fruition, you‘re still paying less than you did before Trump.