RUSH: On the Amazon thing in New York City, this is fascinating — and we’re gonna get to that, too, as the program unfolds. It is absolutely fascinating. I think this Amazon decision with them to pull out of New York because of actions taken by these new young socialist Democrat congressional people? This, folks, is a wonderful teachable moment about what is happening to the Democrat Party and how the traditional way of looking at states working with companies and corporations to create jobs and create a tax base is out the window.

I got a couple of emails today from a friend who said, “Man, Rush, this Cortez, she’s dead! She’s dead! When 2020 comes around, she’s responsible for killing this deal with Amazon. She’s…” I said, “No. No. You’re not hearing… This isn’t 15 years ago where killing a deal like this would anger supposed beneficiaries. The supposed beneficiaries of the Amazon deal are the ones that opposed it: The average, ordinary people that were gonna work there!

“I don’t care what you’ve seen about polling data — and there is a lot of polling data saying that a lot of people wanted Amazon to move in. That’s traditional. But I’m telling you, the prime beneficiaries of this — the people who might have been among those 25,000 new jobs, a lot of them — are celebrating the fact that they told a corporate titan to go to hell and get away from them. It’s a new age out there in a lot of ways.”

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RUSH: Let me ask you real quick, just off the tops of your heads: How many of you think with her Amazon victory, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez — her victory over Amazon and kicking ’em out of New York and making sure that deal doesn’t happen…? How many of you believe that she just guaranteed that she’s going to lose in 2020? I’m not… Don’t call and tell me. I’m just asking you to do a think piece on it. Well, if you want to call, you can. It’s Open Line Friday; you call about anything.

But I think — and it’s hard to say. So much can happen between now and then. But, on the basis of this alone, no way she has hurt herself. Not with the people who elected her. Now, I know the turnout was low in the primary in which she won, and there was no opponent in the general, so she won her seat in the primary. But, anyway, the Amazon situation is a fascinating thing to break down because of the sea change it represents in what everybody’s always thought the status quo has been or was.

When state governments negotiate with major corporate interests for tax breaks and other advantages to come in and open plants or expand plants or create headquarters, there’s always been a way this was done where it was seen that everybody benefited. This new breed of Millennial socialists, they don’t like at all that any of these rich corporations — a corporation owned by the richest guy in the world — gets any kind of a tax break. But she doesn’t understand it, either. This is funny.

When we get to it, it’s funny! She thinks that she just found $3 billion to spend because the Amazon deal has been canceled. She doesn’t know that the $3 billion is contingent on Amazon showing up and building their headquarters. Here’s what everybody… Let me just get into this very quickly. Here’s what everybody that was looking at this got wrong, because Cuomo is a lousy salesman. Cuomo has no idea how to approach people, deal with people, ’cause he’s never had to. He is a liberal Democrat. Put a (D) by your name; you automatically get elected in New York. That’s it.

You don’t have to sell anything. You just have to be pro-choice and have a (D) next to your name and you win in New York. So Cuomo’s never had to develop salesmanship skills or public speaking skills. He’s been able to trade off his name and any number of things. So the Amazon deal is announced, and Cuomo somehow lets it out that Amazon is getting tax breaks worth $3 billion — and that’s all anybody hears.

Cuomo did not communicate properly that Amazon is going to be paying $27 billion in taxes over the course of 10 years. The tax break was not the elimination of taxes. It was just gonna be given a break of $3 billion. But nobody knows that Amazon was gonna pay $27 billion, because Cuomo is so bad at what he does. By the time he finished making his big announcement, what the people of New York heard was that Amazon is given a $3 billion tax break to move to New York and to open a headquarters.

And the way they interpreted that is, essentially, “Amazon is being paid $3 billion to come here? Screw that!” They failed to properly explain that the $3 billion was spread over 10 years and was just a portion of the $27 billion that Amazon was gonna be spending. So none of it exists now. Since Amazon’s not coming, there isn’t $27 billion — and, by the way, Cuomo could use that because he’s got all kinds of wealthy people leaving his state.

So he could use the Amazon tax base.

He could use that $27 billion in taxes they were gonna pay.

But Cortez, she doesn’t know any of that. All she thinks is that the state had $3 billion they were gonna give Amazon for moving in — and now that Amazon isn’t coming, she thinks that she’s got $3 billion to spend! If you doubt me, let’s go to audio sound bite number 20. Here she is in all of her radiant brilliance, Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, on the CBS News website. An unidentified reporter asks her what she thinks about Amazon’s decision to cancel the headquarters.

The reporter says, “What’s your reaction to” Amazon not following through on this?

CORTEZ: I think it’s incredible! I mean, it shows that everyday Americans still have the power to organize and fight for their communities, and they can have more say in the country than the richest man in the world. If we were willing to give away $3 billion for this deal, we could invest those $3 billion in our district ourselves if we wanted to. We could hire out more teachers. We can fix our subways. We could put a lot of people to work with that money if we wanted to.

RUSH: Yeah, except it doesn’t exist, Senorita. See, that $3 billion was a tax break, a deal. Amazon was going to pay $27 billion in taxes over, I think it was, a 10-year period. That’s what the… New York cut ’em a deal. “We’ll reduce that by $3 billion.” Well, all that got reported… ‘Cause Cuomo doesn’t know how to do this well, all that ended up in the news was that New York state is giving Amazon $3 billion to locate to Long Island City.

So, Cortez, in her radiance and intelligence here, thinks that the state has $3 billion that it was gonna have give Amazon. But now that Amazon’s not coming, she can get it. Well, the $3 billion was part of $27 billion or $30 billion that Amazon was gonna pay. Before they could get that tax break of $3 billion, they had to start paying taxes. And since they’re not coming, since they’re gonna go back to Virginia, since they’re not locating in New York now, since they pulled out, they’re not gonna be paying a penny in New York taxes.

So the $3 billion that Cortez thinks that she can get for teachers and subways isn’t there. Now, this is a new kind of stupidity. It is a new kind of economic ignorance, but, I’m telling you, she is no dumber than the people that elected her. They’re all sitting there hearing her and saying, “Yeah, man! You tell ’em! You tell ’em. We just told Amazon to go to hell. We just… We’re not gonna sit here and we’re not gonna be forced to give away things to the richest evil corporation in America.”

And the traditional Democrats like the guy that she defeated and Pelosi and these others, Cuomo, they’re sitting there, and they have been literally shell-shocked. They have no idea. They don’t even know how radically left — really, radically stupid — these young Millennial Democrats are. I find it comically hilarious. She’s sitting there thinking they’ve got $3 billion (laughing) ’cause they kicked Amazon out, not realizing that they’ve got zero (laughing) because Amazon’s not showing up and not gonna be paying any taxes.

So I can’t wait for her to make the request. I can’t wait for her to somehow get her hands on that $3 billion that she thinks is laying around somewhere. (laughing) New York doesn’t have $3 billion, folks. Cuomo just lost, I think, $2.5 billion in tax revenue from people moving out of the state. But look at the sea change it represents. In the old days not that long ago, every Democrat would have been celebrating this. Why? Because it’s new jobs. “Yeah, man, it’s new jobs. It’s corporate expansion.

“It’s gonna revitalize an area of town in Queens, Long Island City, that’s kind of been dilapidated for a while.” They would have looked at it as the kind of thing to get reelected on! But not now. I checked my tech blogs on this ’cause I knew what I was gonna find. You know what I found? The tech blog groups are all in favor of Cortez. They hate Amazon like they hate Apple, because they’re big and they charge for what they sell. Do not… You think I’m exaggerating, and I may be elaborating a bit.

But when I tell you these people think anything over free means they’re being ripped off, they really do, folks. This young bunch of Millennials comes from the most protected bunch of kids. Having been raised as special, they hate the outfits that end up paying their living covering Apple, covering automation, covering Facebook, covering Google. They despise ’em. So sending Jeff Bezos packing is a victory. Telling some rich corporate guy to take his company somewhere else is a major victory for them.

So I’m reading one of the tech blogs, and this guy’s point is, “Well, we can’t look at it the way we used to in terms of jobs created because the jobs created don’t pay a decent living. The jobs that Amazon is gonna create are basically no more than the same jobs we create when we open a restaurant or a shoeshine stand at the airport or some such thing,” and they say those jobs are not worth creating. And it’s all looked at within the context of the great divide between haves and have-nots. The tech people made the assumption here that Amazon’s jobs are gonna add to the people in the have-not category.

They’re not good jobs. They’re not high-paying jobs. They’re not jobs worth having. So they may as well not even show up, and Bezos shouldn’t be benefiting from creating a bunch of jobs that these tech people and these Millennials think are beneath them anyway. So that’s how they’re looking at it. It’s not that jobs… In the old days, 25,000 new jobs is just great for Long Island City, it’s great for Queens, it’s great for New York, it’s great for the tax base, it’s great for gentrification, it’s great for modernization.

“No, no, no, no! What kind of jobs?”

If they’re not the kind of jobs that pay 150 grand, then you’re not gonna fool these people into supporting them.

So they’re celebrating today that they sent Bezos packing. Now, if it came down… If they found out, for example, that Trump was behind the nude pecker photos of Bezos, they’d turn around and they’d support Bezos over that ’cause they hate Trump so much. But it turns out that Bezos’ girlfriend’s brother is the leaker. Did you hear that? Bezos’ girlfriend’s brother is who leaked all those photos of Bezos. Meanwhile, Bezos doesn’t care. He’s relocating to Virginia. He’s got his second headquarters going.

No sweat off his back.

But the Cortezes and the other Millennial socialists are celebrating the fact that they kicked a corporate titan to the curb, and that’s all that matters to them.

BREAK TRANSCRIPT

RUSH: Here’s John in Fort Myers, Florida. Great to have you, John. Glad you waited. Welcome to the program.

CALLER: Thank you much. Mega dittos.

RUSH: Thank you.

CALLER: I’ve been a fan for three decades now, 30 years.

RUSH: I appreciate that, sir. Thank you very much.

CALLER: All right. I just wanted to say one thing. Old Cuomo up there in New York is angry at AOC because she ran Amazon off and they’re not gonna get those 25,000 high-tech, high-paying jobs, and he was looking forward to those tax benefits, the benefits those people pay in taxes. That sounds to me an awful lot like Cuomo was looking forward to some trickle-down Reaganomics. What do you think about that?

RUSH: Yeah. So you’re happy to see that Cuomo is touting trickle-down economics that he’s not gonna get?

CALLER: Yeah! I mean, he’s angry at AOC because Amazon’s leaving and taking those jobs away, because he was looking forward to the tax benefits of those people paying taxes because they were going to provide taxes to the State of New York, and now they’re not going to. And that sounds to me like he’s upset that trickle-down economics aren’t working in his state.

RUSH: Well, now, that is a good point. That is an added aspect of this, too, that the trickle-down economics was clearly how New York was gonna benefit. There was first gonna be the tax benefits that Amazon was gonna pay. But, see, this is where that whole thing broke down, because Cuomo is such a lousy salesman. I made the point earlier: Cuomo doesn’t have to be good at anything because he’s Cuomo, and has a (D) after his name in New York, and he’s pro-choice. That’s all he needs. He doesn’t have to be good at anything, and he clearly is not good at explaining what this Amazon deal was because it was easily misrepresented.

And Cortez and her band of Millennials are totally clueless about it.

The idea that they think they have scored a great victory here is actually hilarious.