De Blasio and Progressives to Put Forward an Inequality Contract for America
New York City mayoral frontrunner Bill de Blasio (L) and his wife Chirlane McCray speak at a campaign rally at Brooklyn Borough Hall on November 1, 2013 in the Brooklyn borough of New York City.
(Photo by Andrew Burton/Getty Images)On Thursday, a day on which many New Yorkers were squinting in what seemed like the first full sunlight in months, New York Mayor de Blasio announced at Gracie Mansion that he, along with a number of other leading progressives, was putting forward a vision for how to address income inequality. Speaking first, de Blasio said that the group had come together to formulate a template for how best to conquer income inequality, which, he said, is worse today than it was at the height of the Great Depression. “We've got to change the politics of the country to change inequality,” he said. The aim, in his words, is “making sure income inequality is at the forefront of the national discussion.”
De Blasio, the first liberal to lead New York’s City Hall in two decades, said that the progressive group's “vision” will be announced in May, likely in Washington, D.C., and will explicitly parallel the Republican Party's 1994 Contract for America.