Gov. Spitzer's latest ad in the health care wars (below) features a children's choir in hospital robes singing 'Hallelujah' while his hired narrator recites newspaper excerpts praising his "reforms." The ad, as is typical of both sides in this fight, never bothers to explain what the "reforms" are -- except at the end, where the narrator cites "all the kids who'll finally have medical coverage."
This sounds wonderful. But for the record, the actual fight here is over $1.2 billion in cuts in health care funding, most of them from the Medicaid program, most of them from hospitals and nursing homes. When you delve into the details of his budget, you find that a grand total of $34.7 million is going into expanding childrens health insurance. Most of the health money is being diverted to school aid and property tax cuts.
Meanwhile, Spitzer spokeswoman Christine Anderson is lashing out at the "distortions and misrepresentations" in ads from the other side, which suggest the cuts will lead to mass layoffs etc.
John Riley