Thread by @asymmetricinfo

So, there was sort of an interesting reaction to my tweeting about the Green New Deal where people complained about the lousy maintenance on the New York subway systems and said they'd support it to get the money to fix the system.

I suppose that must seem intuitive to a lot of people. But a) NYC would be a massive net tax donor to any green New Deal; you wouldn't be getting money from anyone else, you'd paying for other people, so there's nothing really stopping NYC from doing this right now.

I pause to note that yes, NYC has scandalously under maintained its system for years. In part because New Yorkers go ape whenever anyone suggests raising the fares. Money's gotta come from somewhere ... but I agree the MTA should have done better.

However, if I, personally, were Green New Deal czar, New York, Washington, Boston, Philadelphia, SF and Chicago would be getting zero money from me, because we'd need all the money for the places that don't have any semblance of a mass transit alternative to cars.

So I wonder if there aren't folks who like the green New Deal because they envision it being used to fix their transit systems, rather than sending their money to build transit systems in other states, which is what would actually have to happen in the unlikely event of passage.