New Orleans vs. New York?

Even with costly hurricane cleanup, renewing Bush’s tax cuts will help Gotham’s economy—and the nation’s.

Having endured their own catastrophe four years ago, New Yorkers have empathy for the victims of Hurricane Katrina and have already done their share to lend aid. But New Yorkers also need to be wary of a post-Katrina mindset in Washington that will set back Gotham’s own revival.

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....... no other single action or event has been as crucial to New York’s revived fiscal prospects as those tax cuts. Allowing them to expire would cast a dark cloud of uncertainty over the city’s fiscal and economic prospects. New York’s mayoral candidates, as well as its congressional representatives (many of whom foolishly voted against the cuts last time), should now be making a strong case in Washington that maintaining a vibrant stock market is key not just to the city’s economic future but to the country’s, and that repealing those tax cuts could undermine Wall Street.

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