Quote: r3x29yz4a said: Arnold [has] been at war with nursing groups. They want more staffs at county/city/state (government funded) hospitals while Arnold refers to them as "special interest groups" and actually said he'd "kick their butt."
Quote: the G-man said: By definition, they are a special interest group.
Any group that enters the political debate in order to advance their own personal agenda/benefit is a "special interest group."
Quote: r3x29yz4a said: I think you can't use a blanket term to cover people lobbying for tobacco companies and nurses lobbying trying to improve hospital care.
Both the tobacco companies and the nurses' union are lobbying their own interests, namely, policies and programs that benefit themselves personally/financially.
I realize that the nurses' union is going to say they are "trying to improve hospital care," but find me one shred of evidence that their view of what "improves hospital care" doesn't involve higher salaries and/or better working conditions for themselves.
And even if we take them at their word, the fact that their particular "special interest" might have a positive effect in addition to a 'selfish' one, that doesn't mean that they aren't a textbook special interest group.
