When Hillary Clinton went shopping for a state in which to unpack her carpetbag, she knew just the color she wanted: not a state tinted ordinary blue but one imbued with the blue that always takes her by the eye and sends her heart a-thumping. Not all America, however, is Mrs. Clinton�s true blue home. Therefore, people who live in other states, no matter their particular shade of red or blue, will be interested to learn what gives New York the unique hue that Mrs. Clinton finds irresistible.

Let us begin by examining how New York State discharges its fundamental duty to protect citizens from harm. If you are familiar with the television series �Law and Order,� you know that in show after show, the prosecutor threatens murderers with the death penalty. In reality, however, the real district attorney of the real Manhattan has never asked for the death penalty as approved by the people of New York State, no matter how heinous the crime. What better example to demonstrate that when Liberal elites speak of �evolving standards of decency,� they never add �as defined by us, no matter the thoughts and wishes of the ignorant slobs who populate the nation.�

The elite media solemnly tells us that an essential quality of New York politicians is their cosmopolitan sophistication and knowing �gravitas.� Well, you would think that to protect the public from the worst of criminals, politicians dripping with �gravitas� would have brought a thoughtful common sense to amending the state�s Rockefeller drug laws, which provided for harsh penalties even to those convicted of minor drug offenses. But Liberal �gravitas� is apparently unable to resists the entreaties of trial lawyers and other ACLU types; for as Murray Weiss points out in the NY Post, the new, improved law slashes the sentences of heinous criminals, including �killers who executed a trial witness� and a large group of other convicts who belong to �a rogues� gallery of thugs.�

New York political �gravitas� also dictates that the state extend its Liberal largesse to pedophiles. Commentator Bill O�Reilly and Governor George Pataki finger state legislator Sheldon Silver, a best friend to trial lawyers, as the sole reason that the state cannot pass Jessica�s Law because �one person, either in the Senate or the House, can prevent a bill [from coming to the floor].� So much for the Liberal commitment to protecting children and to having legislatures express the will of the people.

Moving on to New York�s fiscal condition, we find that only the psychotically gullible would believe New York elites when they claim that like national Democrats, they have suddenly developed a hatred of red ink. Why? Consider this fact published by the NYC Campaign Finance Board: �[New York State carries a] debt burden in the range of $40 � $50 billion� or a total debt of �$2,593 per person, which is more than double the national average and which ranks fifth highest among the states.� Or this statement by New York�s Citizens Budget Commission: �The State recently has borrowed about $8 billion to support operating expenses rather than to make capital investments.� 

But even the most gullible among us would not doubt the enormity of the arrogance which motivates those who love the color of government power achieved through government �investments� after thinking carefully about the Commission�s finding that of the State�s $48 billion debt, less than $4 billion was approved by the voters.
 
Despite this abominable fiscal record, New York�s elites promoted an unsuccessful  ballot initiative in the 2005 Election that would have given the state legislature nearly exclusive power over the state budget. Before election day, the New York Post listed those in favor of the initiative (including unions, special interests, and Sheldon Silver), those opposed (including governors present and past), and those who �WON'T TAKE A STAND� (including U.S. Senator Hillary Clinton).

No, politicians enrobed in �gravitas� can�t devote a minute to unimportant problems such as billions of tax dollars wasted or stolen. That�s why New York elites won�t do a thing to stop the waste of precious health care dollars provided by taxpayers as revealed by a New York Times investigation: �40 percent of New York�s $45-billion dollar-a-year Medicaid tab is paid to crooks who have figured out how to beat the chaotic system.�

Nor will we hear them react to Devon Herrick, who writes as follows in Health Care News. �New York�s Medicaid program is the largest and most costly in the nation. Although the state accounts for less than 7 percent of the U.S. population, nearly 14 percent ($45 billion) of Medicaid funds nationwide will be spent there in 2005 on more than 4 million enrollees.�

Nor will we find them working to eliminate the conditions described by James Mehmet, former chief state investigator of Medicaid fraud and abuse in New York City, who asserts that �New York Medicaid spending is 130 percent more than the national average,� an amount nearly that spent by �California and Florida combined, despite having only about a third of their combined population.� In total, alleges Mr. Mehmet, �nearly $18 billion of the New York Medicaid budget is spent on fraudulent or medically unnecessary services and procedures.�

Of this disgusting thievery, politicians burdened by the demands of �gravitas� tell the people of New York State not to worry as, to add insult to billion of dollars of injury, they refuse to pass a law mandating a meaningful �preferred drug list� that according to the NY Post would save New York taxpayers �hundreds of millions of dollars a year.�

Though incomplete, this account, which began with a mention of carpetbags and colors, serves to introduce readers to those aspects of New York State that Hillary Clinton finds irresistible. But however despicable the politicians who paint New York State with a disgusting arrogance, the fact remains that in a democracy people get the kind of government they deserve. So it is that in addition to the facts presented here, I add the opinion that should a President Hillary Clinton ever get to stash her carpetbag in an obscure nook of a White House bedroom, she will paint the nation a sickly blue with the help of arrogant New York friends who like her worship power and the people�s money above all else.

Copyright by A.J. DiCintio

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