Well, look who stumbled into reality. CNN host Fareed Zakaria unloaded on New York City and Los Angeles this weekend, calling them “out of control” for spending more, promising more, and somehow delivering… less. A shocking revelation to anyone who’s lived in a Democrat-run city for longer than five minutes.
Zakaria zeroed in on New York City, where Mayor Zohran Mamdani is pushing a massive $127 billion budget. Despite campaigning on “affordability,” Zakaria said New York, Los Angeles, and Chicago are actually “producing unaffordability.” Translation: when one party runs the show forever, the only thing that grows faster than homelessness is the budget.
He pointed to Los Angeles as another example of big spending with nothing to show for it. The city’s homelessness budget for fiscal year 2025–26 is about $950 million. Yet homelessness rose 9 percent countywide and 10 percent in the city in 2023. Since 2015, it’s surged 70 percent countywide and 80 percent in the city. Apparently, throwing money at a problem without accountability is not a strategy. Who knew?
Zakaria noted that despite billions spent, frustration is boiling over. An audit of $2.4 billion in city homelessness funding found officials couldn’t reliably track where the money went or what it achieved. That’s comforting. Nothing says “compassion” like losing track of billions.
He didn’t let Chicago off the hook either, pointing out that its mayor’s approval rating is deep underwater and that the city’s pension promises are so large they’re practically designed to bankrupt it. Fiscal responsibility, Chicago-style.
Meanwhile, California’s homeless population has jumped 60 percent since 2015, even after billions were funneled into cities like Los Angeles. In New York, 20 people froze to death during a January cold snap after Mamdani announced an end to sweeps of homeless encampments. Progressive policy meets winter. Nature wins.
Mamdani’s budget also includes a 9.5 percent property tax hike to cover a $5.4 billion shortfall, after New York’s governor rejected his call to raise taxes on the rich and corporations. Zakaria admitted Mamdani’s instinct to focus on housing is right — but said government subsidies only make things worse. New York’s rental assistance spending jumped from $263 million in 2020 to $1.34 billion in recent years, and housing costs still climbed. Five times the spending, zero times the success.
Zakaria argued that the real solution is making it easy to build market-rate housing, expanding the tax base, and growing the local economy. In other words, let the market work instead of burying it under bureaucracy and handouts.
Even Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass got fact-checked on the spot over pothole repairs and took heat for spending more than a million dollars on a two-stall restroom near Runyon Canyon. A million dollars for two stalls — luxury living, Democrat-style.
The irony is rich: a CNN host finally admitting what millions of Americans already know. Blue cities keep raising taxes, growing budgets, and delivering chaos. The upside? When even CNN starts sounding like this, maybe the message is breaking through.
And that’s good news — because once voters see the pattern, change isn’t just possible, it’s inevitable.
