New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg laced into New York Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand in a tense phone call this week over the Senate health-care bill, a source told The NY Post . “The mayor really gave Gillibrand a piece of his mind over the damage the bill will do the city,” said the source, who is close to the Bloomberg administration.
“He wasn’t happy, and she didn’t have much to say other than to claim it wasn’t as bad as he was saying.”
The call came just days before the Senate was expected to approve its health-care legislation this morning.
Bloomberg and Gov. Paterson have both been railing about what they see as the bill’s destructive impact on New York, while New York Sens. Gillibrand and Chuck Schumer have been praising the plan.
Paterson has called the legislation a “disgrace,” claiming it will “devastate” state medical care and cost New York more than $1 billion a year in Medicaid funds.
Hizzoner this week said the Senate legislation could force the closure of “hundreds” of health facilities.
In the face of those attacks, Gillibrand and Schumer both defended the bill, arguing it will cover the uninsured and claiming that they blocked many of the harshest proposed cuts from hitting New Yorkers.
A second source close to Bloomberg confirmed the mayor made his dissatisfaction with the Senate bill clear when he spoke to Gillibrand by phone Tuesday.
The source noted Bloomberg had spoken to Schumer earlier and said the tone was “friendlier,” since Bloomberg and Schumer have a long-standing relationship.
Other aides to Gillibrand and Bloomberg characterized their talk as friendly.
“They had a cordial and indepth conversation about details of what’s in the Senate bill, the senator’s view of how it will positively impact New York, and continuing to fight for the best bill possible,” said a Gillibrand spokesman.
Asked specifically about tension during their phone call, Bloomberg’s spokesman said, “We generally keep personal conversations personal.” Additional reporting by Sally Goldenberg in New York
{NY Post/Noam Amdurski-Matzav.com Newscenter}
Lets vote both of these Democrat Senators out of office!