Lawdie knows that New York has huge needs (as does New Jersey just to the south).  And there sits Gov. Cuomo of New York with his begging bowl out to the U.S. Government for $30 billion (with a capital 'B').  Cuomo makes this demand the same week that the just-re-elected President Obama starts a series of meetings aimed at hopefully helping the U.S. economy avoid falling over a "fiscal cliff".  Yes, New York has public transit, private housing, local government, individual persons needing, as reasons it asks money. But Cuomo's wishes for his segment of the U.S. nation would add $30 Billion to a federal government deficit of more than $12 Trillion (Billions combine to make up Trillions).  Not included in this Cuomo wishlist is a similar need for huge amounts of federal money to resurrect New Jersey's shore and inland communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy and a nor'east storm a week later.  And down there in Washington is a guy who loves to chest thump that he is the nation's commander-in-chief, a military term that includes a talent for issuing unavoidable orders.  Does Cuomo have some sort of leverage over the President as he sits at an ivory tower in Albany? And what about that lovely bipartisan demonstration that Obama and Gov. Christie of Neew Jersey showed during the President's brief visit to survey Jersey's storm damage?  New Orleans got nearly $10 billion in federal money for the Army Corps of Engineers to oversee a rebuild of levees and other flood protection systems intended to protect a city that is much below sealevel. New York and New Jersey theorists are also starting debate over huge construction projects to protect those states as flood gates protect Venice, in Italy.