New York Daily News Flashback: “Ford to City: Drop Dead”
October 30, 1975: In perhaps its most iconic headline, The News criticized President Ford for declaring that he would veto any bill calling for a federal bailout of New York City and proposing legislation that would make it easier to bankrupt the city.
Although Ford never used the words “drop dead,” he acknowledged that sentiment essentially cost him the presidency when Jimmy Carter narrowly won New York state in 1976. He ultimately provided federal loans to the city, which were repaid with interest.
Extract from the editorial pages: “President Gerald Ford made it clear yesterday that the White House did not want to participate in any constructive effort to help New York City avoid default. Indeed, the President seems to think that we should welcome insolvency as a wholesome and cleansing atonement for all our past fiscal sins of omission and commission. … This totally negative approach has been accompanied by many solemn sermons about the city’s appalling record of waste, extravagance and shenanigans financial, and on the wealth of its welfare state programs, the exorbitant salaries and pensions it granted to public servants This tale of wrongdoing was nothing less than a slap in the back of a big city – a cheap political act that recklessly plays on anti-New York sentiment across the country.
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