Republican Rep. Nicole Malliotakis used Newsmax’s Wake Up America to deliver a simple warning that ought to alarm every taxpayer: the socialist agenda championed by mayor-elect Zohran Mamdani will not be cost-free. She told viewers Democrats should read a history book on socialism before foisting its failed experiments on hardworking Americans, and she framed the debate where it belongs — around who pays the bill.
Zohran Mamdani, a self-described democratic socialist, shocked the city by winning the New York mayoral race on November 4, 2025 and is set to take office on January 1, 2026, a victory that national leftists are treating as a mandate for big government. His rise marks a sharp shift toward the radical wing of Democrats that promises expansive government programs funded by higher taxes and heavier regulation.
Mamdani’s playbook is classic democratic-socialist politics: universal childcare beginning at six weeks, free public buses, rent freezes, and even city-run grocery stores — all sold as “solutions” for struggling families. His campaign says the measures would be funded with steep tax hikes on the top 1 percent and corporations — a plan his team claims could raise roughly $10 billion a year, but which independent analysts warn could devastate business confidence and investment.
Congressional Republicans are right to be furious about the prospect of taxpayer dollars underwriting a radical experiment, but Malliotakis rightly rejected the fringe idea of punishing New Yorkers by stripping basic federal funding from the city. She slammed a proposed bill to defund New York as “ludicrous,” arguing that fighting socialism at the ballot box is one thing and penalizing millions of innocent taxpayers is another. That pragmatic conservatism — defend the people, oppose the policies — is the stance voters in her district expect.
Conservatives should be blunt: promises of “free” everything always have a hidden price tag, and when governments swallow up whole sectors — groceries, childcare, transit — prices aren’t controlled, freedoms are, and innovation dies. Analysts and opinion writers on the right have catalogued how Mamdani’s agenda would add billions to the city budget and require tax hikes that threaten to push out jobs and middle-class families who still foot a large share of the bill. New Yorkers who love their city deserve leaders who defend prosperity, not ideologues who treat tax base and small businesses like piggy banks.
Now is not the time for conservatives to retreat into headline-grabbing theatrics; it’s the time to organize, to point voters to the simple lessons of history, and to force accountability at every level of government. Malliotakis is staking out exactly that posture — opposing socialist policy while protecting ordinary New Yorkers from cruel, counterproductive punishments. If Republicans want to win in 2026 and beyond, they must make the case that liberty and common-sense budgets, not top-down socialism, build lasting prosperity.
