Nadler disagrees with Supreme Court ruling

In New York City's 8th District where the University is located, Democratic representative Jerry Nadler recently denounced the Supreme Court ruling that corporations may make financial contributions to election campaigns.

“Now corporations including those controlled by foreign interests have the same rights as voters, what is in store for our democracy? Perhaps, one day, we will have Exxon as a colleague here in Congress," Nadler said in a public statement.

Students expressed concern over the ruling. “It's just going to lead to more scandals. Politicians who win elections based on corporate campaign financing will be indebted to the corporations who helped elect them,” junior Tanish Sethi said.

“As a student, it's a huge blow. You feel like you can make even less of a difference,” junior Joe Sapanaro said.

Nadler also expressed dismay at the closing of Manhattan's St. Vincent's hospital. “There is no getting around it, the situation for St. Vincent’s Hospital is critical, and we are all extremely concerned. At the moment, we are actively engaging federal agencies to provide resources,” Nadler said.

“We need more hospitals, not less,” junior Ioana Atanassova said. “Maybe we should quit the war and spend money on our own people, not foreign policy. If we are going to live on credit from China, we might as well spend the money on our own people rather than killing people in other countries.”

Nadler believes the fight is still there for healthcare reform, but massive changes need to be made in order to curb the cost spiral. Of healthcare reform on Capitol Hill, Nadler said, “It's all very vague and up in the air at this point. There are people in the caucus saying we should give up on comprehensive reform.”

The pause on healthcare is alarming to some healthcare experts who believe that doing nothing will cause greater damage to New York and the country.

According to data from the Governor's office, the average family pays $13,500 a year for insurance. This is up 97 percent from 2000. If this continues and healthcare reform is not pushed through, by 2016 the average family will be paying at least $24,000 a year for healthcare and benefits will only get worse.

Despite the recent loss of the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority, Nadler believes the fight for healthcare reform is not over. He calls for an overhaul of the healthcare system rather than just market-based solutions.

“If you just want to do those insurance reforms, that's going to greatly increase the costs to insurance companies, and the premium rates are going to skyrocket," Nadler said.

According to The Advocate, Nadler and five other representatives spearheaded a letter asking President Barack Obama and Congress to include Lesbian Gay Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) binational family and couple rights in immigration reform.

“We must take the government out of the business of singling out LGBT families for discriminatory treatment and live up to our democratic ideal of equality under the law,” Nadler said.

Nadler is the lead sponsor of the Uniting Families Act, a bill to amend the Immigration and Nationality Act and eliminate discrimination in immigrant laws.

Nadler along with Senator Chuck Schumer has also protested at the city's decision to not include money to build a second subway station at 41 Street and 10 Avenue in Manhattan.

A tunnel will be cut through this location, but the second station is not in the contract. “Everyone involved should jump at the opportunity to create a second stop at 41st and 10th, which would open a portion of Manhattan that is ripe for development,” Senator Schumer said.

“It's scary. There's all this money and no one knows where it's going,” freshman Tasha Schmidt said.