Nice to see Schumer doing some heavy-duty pandering

Or, telling an outright lie about why he opposes an increase in taxes on hedge funds. Schumer says an increase in tax increase on private equity and hedge fund executivescould lead to a massive exodus of financial services jobs from New York City.

Please.

First, it’s a federal tax, so it will apply everywhere.

Second, if it leads New York State to raise similar state taxes, well, last I checked, Schumer was a United States Senator, not a New York State one. That said, he can lobby the state legislature against that, if push comes to shove.

Third, if the Democratic Congress remains committed to pay as you go budgeting, unlike the GOP that gave us plenty of complicity in six years of Bush deficits, money for new programs has to come from somewhere. Even Schumer acknowledges this part of the calculus.

Now, whether his “poison pill” alternative of including real estate and energy folks is legitimate or just a poison pill, I don’t know. Big Oil would be nice for a shakedown, but, unless the real estate tax were narrowly targeted at some high rollers, I think it would make the housing slump a lot worse.