Senate leader suggested states struggling to cope with coronavirus should be able to file for bankruptcy rather than seek federal aid

This article is more than 4 months old

This article is more than 4 months old

New York’s governor, Andrew Cuomo, has angrily slammed as “irresponsible, reckless” and “one of the really dumb ideas of all time” Senate leader Mitch McConnell’s suggestion that states struggling to cope with the coronavirus should be able to file for bankruptcy rather than seek financial aid from the federal government.

During an interview yesterday, McConnell said: “I would certainly be in favor of allowing states to use the bankruptcy route. It saves some cities. And there’s no good reason for it not to be available. My guess is their first choice would be for the federal government to borrow money from future generations to send it down to them now so they don’t have to do that. That’s not something I’m going to be in favor of.”

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Cuomo, who has repeatedly demanded that Congress provide more funding for states to cover the costs of the coronavirus crisis, said McConnell’s suggestion was “one of the really dumb ideas of all time”.

The governor, a Democrat, warned that states declaring bankruptcies could cause “a collapse of this national economy”.

Cuomo also lambasted McConnell, the Republican senator from Kentucky, for suggesting relief money for states would represent a bailout for Democratic states, which have generally been harder hit by the virus.

“If there’s ever a time for humanity and decency, now’s the time,” Cuomo said. “How irresponsible and how reckless.”

States do not have the right to declare bankruptcy under US law, and legislative changes would be needed to allow that. Declaring bankruptcy generally affords certain powers and protections during financial restructuring.

Cuomo not only dismissed the idea, he noted that New York produces much more revenue for the federal government than Kentucky does.

“It’s your state that is living on the money that we generate,” Cuomo said. “Your state is being bailed out, not my state.”

New York quickly became the center of the US outbreak of coronavirus, following the earliest known cases and deaths on the west coast, in California and Washington.

Cuomo has spent several weeks in his daily briefings asking the federal government to help with critical medical supplies that individual states were not in a position to stockpile or acquire overnight, especially ventilators, and has lately pleaded for money to fund widespread testing for the disease and levels of immunity.

Meanwhile evidence is emerging that far more New Yorkers have had the coronavirus than the number confirmed by lab tests.

A state survey of around 3,000 people found that 13.9% had antibodies, suggesting they had been exposed to the virus, Cuomo said, warning results were preliminary.

New York City’s health commissioner, Dr Oxiris Barbot, said as many as a million people in New York City, out of a population of 8.4 million, may have been exposed to the coronavirus.

More than 263,000 people in the city have tested positive for the virus, “but that really is, I think, the tip of the iceberg”, Barbot said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report