Hospitals, Unions Join Budget Fray Against Pataki's New York State Budget

The New York Sun reports:

The state's largest hospital associations and health care union are waging a statewide battle against Governor Pataki's budget vetoes with television, print, and radio advertising campaigns costing millions of dollars.

Responding to Mr. Pataki's hard-line efforts to slash hundreds of millions of dollars in Medicaid spending that the Legislature restored in its budget, the health care groups shot back this week with a television spot that accuses the governor of getting "everything upside down and backwards."

A new radio ad suggests that Mr. Pataki's cuts put lives at risk by depleting the staff of emergency rooms. In newspaper ads and direct mailings, the groups are instructing New Yorkers to swamp the main telephone number of the governor's chambers with calls of complaint.

The groups say they've spent $3.5 million on the campaigns, which is more than the combined fund-raising of all the Republican candidates for governor as reported in the candidates' January filings.

As you can see who really has a vested interest in the massive growth in government.The problem will only get worse because these special interest have the right to vote.