[Update below]
Congressional Democrats are riding the high-tide of legislative victory after passing health care reform this past week. For Congressman Nadler, it was a week of press releases and speeches from the floor of Congress.
There were two big Nadler moments around health care. The first, announced prior to the vote, was an announcement that the New York congressional delegation was able to provide the state $2.1 billion in Medicare savings. In the original Senate version of the bill, New York State would have been paying even more to cover the needy.
“Instead of costing New York State $779 million and punishing us for taking a more progressive stance in the Medicaid system, as was directed by the Senate-passed health insurance bill, the Delegation has successfully added provisions to instead save the State $1.3 billion in costs,” Nadler said in a press release. “Providing a net gain of $2.1 billion is a critical improvement to the legislation and will mean a great deal for balancing our State’s budget.”
The savings will be greatly appreciated as Albany legislators are trying to plug a nearly $10 billion budget hole.
Moment 2: as we’ve seen across the country, the rhetoric against the passage of health care reform has become toxic.
Case in point: Carl Paladino, an upstate Republican who will likely run for governor, compared health care reform to the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. “The day that that bill was passed will be remembered just as 9/11 was remembered in history,” he said.
Nadler, who represents lower Manhattan and did in 2001, didn’t take kindly to the statements.
“Every decent person should be disgusted by Carl Paladino’s comparison of the recently enacted health care reform bill with the attacks of 9/11,” Nadler said. “As the Member of Congress who represent the World Trade Center site and many of the people who were killed or permanently injured on that day, I believe that there is no place in public life for this kind of vile exploitation of their sacrifice.”
Take that, Paladino.
UPDATE: Apparently Paladino didn’t appreciate being admonished by Nadler reported New York magazine. “”I am not impressed that you kissed enough asses to chair a committee of politicians in the Congress,” Paladino told Nadler.