RUSH: New York City and surrounding suburbs face the unthinkable. According to Bloomberg News, service on city busses and subways could be reduced by 40 percent, and commuter trains by 50 percent. The Metropolitan Transportation Authority says they’ll be forced to raise fares and tolls and cut 9,000 jobs.

For the 15 million people who depend on New York’s mass transit, this is a disaster. Bloomberg calls it a “doomsday scenario.” They predict that if these cuts happen, the economic fallout will continue even after the pandemic is over. The entire region will suffer, and the suffering could last for years. New York’s economy could take a $65 billion hit. Total job losses could be north of 450,000.

This adds up to a huge steaming pile of bad news for the northeast. But there’s a solution that would stop this dead in its tracks.

If the federal government just steps in with a bundle of cash, none of this bad stuff will happen! So, New York transportation bosses are begging and pleading. They want a measly $12 billion from the federal treasury that would save the busses, save the subways, save the commuter trains, the jobs, and the economy!

Then nobody could blame Governor Andrew Cuomo, Mayor Bill de Blasio, or the Democrat Party for closing down New York to play political games. That’s their objective. I hope it doesn’t happen.