Something similar happened with the Federal Liberals in Australia a few years back, maybe in a more cynical manoeuvre. They structured things to get two or three good years of budget balance, had a big song and dance about budget being 'back in black', coffee mugs were made, anybody who cared to read a little understood the transitory nature of it, but that didn't stop the media screeching and squawking.

Joke was on the Liberals in the end, their main opposition, Labor, benefited more from those years than they did, since the Liberals then went ahead and lost the next election.

Lets hope Mamdani is less cynical, and has more humility than the Australian Liberals. In the process proving to Americans that some right winger churning out Friedman quotes isn't actually that good for an economy.