Iraq’s insurgents, Osama Bin Laden, the recently deceased Zarqawi . . .this is the list our government has convinced many people to regard as our enemies. The government is wrong, our enemy is here killing us more everyday. The enemy is government itself. There is no shame as they reach into our pockets at an ever increasing rate. The most recent example is our State Legislators passing a bill which will cost taxpayers more than $1 billion dollars. The reason? To further enrich the unions and to buy votes for the upcoming November elections. The 500 pound bomb should have been dropped on Albany instead of Zarqawi. That would have helped to free the taxpayers held hostage here at home.

The election-bound state legislators unleashed more than $1 billion worth of benefits to unions, which provide the most reliable source of cash and field-operation assistance during political campaigns.

In addition, the unions were handed broad, new powers to use in contract talks with local governments and school districts across the state. These advantages will end up costing local taxpayers for years to come, the school and government experts say.

“It really is a breathtaking list of union giveaways, with zero action to reduce taxpayer costs,” Robert Ward of the Business Council of New York said of the more than 100 union-backed bills that passed both the Senate and Assembly. Buffalo News article here.

In typical fashion, Eliot Spitzer declined to comment or state his position on anything that could be construed as pro taxpayer and anti-union.

Spitzer, endorsed by the AFL-CIO last week, declined to say whether he would veto any of the more than 100 measures if he were governor. Pressed on the issue, the only bill he criticized was one to permit more than 50,000 day care workers at private agencies to join state worker unions.