Investor and “Shark Tank” star Kevin O’Leary claimed Friday that blue states in America are “uninvestable” thanks to regulations enacted by politicians and quipped that Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) is “great at killing jobs.”
The business mogul appeared on “CNN This Morning” to discuss the state of the economy after the latest US jobless claim numbers dropped, which showed positive signs regarding low jobless claims.
O’Leary said the numbers, combined with a 4% unemployment rate, make for “an extraordinary economy” in which “we’re hiring every day and we’re competing every day.”
The mogul noted an interesting wrinkle to the post-pandemic economy — that people don’t want to work in an office anymore because many of them have gotten used to working at home, or they entered the labor force during the pandemic and never set foot in an office.
This remote work boom has made another major difference in the new economy, one he claimed “that nobody saw coming.” He said, “This is the competition of states.”
O’Leary mentioned that he and other investors are choosing not to invest in or grow their businesses in blue states like New York or California anymore because they’re terrible business environments.
He said, “I don’t put companies here in New York anymore or in Massachusetts or New Jersey or California. Those states are uninvestable. The policy here is insane. The taxes are too high. We put them in Fargo, North Dakota, because 40% of the people work elsewhere, including Boston.”
He described a debate he had had with socialist-leaning Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., claiming, “I say, ‘Look, senator, we’ve got to move the companies out of your state because you are not investable anymore. You are punishing people if they are successful, you overtax them, you hit them with a super tax. New Jersey, what a mess! New York, uninvestable.”
By Gabriel Hays
