From the
New York Daily News. You can see the ad on the
NY Post Web site
.ALBANY -- A war of words erupted Monday between Gov. Paterson and the health care industry over proposed cuts to hospitals and nursing homes.
A TV ad decrying the cuts even featured a blind man in a wheelchair (pictured) asking the legally blind Paterson, "Why are you doing this to me?"
Paterson's health commissioner, Richard Daines, a Mormon, shot back by quoting scriptures.
"There's a passage in Jeremiah that says something like, 'Foolish people who even having eyes do not see.' I think we're really concerned about people who have the eyes to see the problem and aren't choosing to see them."
Daines, asked about the use of a blind person in the ad, said, "I wouldn't want to attribute such a crass motive there."
Brian Conway, spokesman for the Greater New York Hospital Association, vehemently denied the use of a blind patient - one of several used in the ad - was linked to Paterson.
"He was just a very concerned person who wanted to participate," Conway said.
Paterson has called for $3.5 billion in health care cuts - including an immediate $500 million to help close a $1.6 billion deficit in the current budget.
The campaign opposing the cuts is run by the HealthCare Education Project - consisting of the Greater New York Hospital Association and the powerful Service Employees International Union Local 1199. The "multimillion-dollar" effort will include TV, radio and newspaper ads as well as mailings.
"Paterson's cuts would ruin health care in New York as we know it by forcing severe reductions in care, layoffs, downsizing and outright closures," said hospital association President Kenneth Raske in a statement.
The ads started even as there are indications that nearly all of the health care cuts Paterson proposed will be spared in a final agreement.
Paterson, in a statement released by his office, called the ads "misleading and factually inaccurate."
In what has become a pattern of changing his message, the governor, after a speech in the city, insisted he has no problem with the ads or the inclusion of a blind patient.
Later, Paterson spokesman Errol Cockfield said the governor knows the cuts will be severe, but said the state faces its most serious budget deficit ever. Cockfield said Paterson is "challenging critics to develop realistic solutions that will comprehensively address our fiscal situation."
Paterson intends to meet today with health care representatives but warned he will not cave on the budget issues just because he is considered weakened following a messy Senate selection process.
"If anyone thinks this is an opportune time to take advantage of me, it is not," he said.
From the New York Daily News. You can see the ad on the NY Post Web site.