In Focus delivers deeper coverage of the political, cultural, and ideological issues shaping America. Published daily by senior writers and experts, these in-depth pieces go beyond the headlines to give readers the full picture. You can find our full list of In Focus pieces here.Just a few months ago, New York’s socialist mayor, Zohran Mamdani, struck a triumphant tone. Taking aim at the late British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher’s repeatedly vindicated truism that “the problem with socialism is that you eventually run out of other people’s money,” Mamdani asserted, “You eventually need a socialist to clean up the mess.”His crowd of admirers loved the line, but the mayor’s exercise in self-congratulation was puzzling on the merits. The “achievement” he’s been touting, a claimed elimination of a whopping budget shortfall, relies almost entirely on bailouts, fiscal sleight of hand, and reckless accounting gimmicks.
State taxpayers are on the hook for a large chunk of the city’s supposedly budget-balancing revenue. As two experts described it, “What Mamdani is hailing as a triumph for democratic socialism amounts to a state bailout standing on a pension gimmick wearing a trenchcoat. [Gov. Kathy] Hochul has given him billions in direct funding, plus her blessing to punt costs almost a whole generation into the future.”Meanwhile, Mamdani is running into other policy-related trouble. His signature campaign promise of instituting “free buses” has been punted into the future, though it seems many New Yorkers have decided to implement their own version of his pledge unilaterally, in violation of the law.This, in turn, is deepening some related fiscal woes. Gothamist reports:It still costs $3 to ride the MTA’s buses, despite Mayor Zohran Mamdani’s campaign pledge to make them free for everyone. But don’t tell that to a growing number of New Yorkers who are evading the fare. The MTA last week reported paid bus ridership fell nearly 8% in June compared to the same month last year. During Mamdani’s first six months in office, the fares the MTA collected from bus riders fell by $31 million compared to the first half of 2025. And MTA Chair Janno Lieber suggested Mamdani’s campaign pledge wasn’t helping. “With malice towards none, I say all the talk of free bus has an impact, it does have an impact,” Lieber said following the MTA’s board meeting on Wednesday. “Without rancor and without blame, I do think we have to now turn as a city to re-establishing the principle that everybody shares in the responsibility for contributing to this system.” Lieber said many of the people skipping the fare can afford to pay, which passes “along responsibility to somebody else who’s probably not as well off as you are.”
