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House Republicans Block Medical Help for 9/11 Heroes
House Republicans last night blocked a bill that would provide long-term medical care and monitoring for the nearly 60,000 Sept. 11 rescue and recovery workers and community members whose health is at serious risk from their exposure to the contaminated and toxic rubble at Ground Zero of the World Trade Center.
AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka called the vote a deep disappointment and said:
Helping the thousands of 9/11 responders and others who are now sick as a result of their exposures at the World Trade Center should not be a partisan issue. But sadly, the majority of House Republicans voted against this bill.
The 255-159 vote in favor of the bill included 12 Republicans. But because the bill was on what is known as the suspension calendar used for non-controversial bills, it needed a two-thirds majority to pass. What’s controversial about helping Sept. 11 heroes who faced a toxic mix of chemicals, jet fuel, asbestos, lead, glass fragments and other debris?
Trumka noted that the cost of the bill was paid for by closing tax loopholes for foreign companies operating in the United States.
It appears that some Republicans and business groups, including the Chamber of Commerce, are more concerned with protecting the interests of the foreign based companies who try to avoid paying taxes than helping those who answered the nation’s call on 9/11.
Rep. Michael E. McMahon (D-N.Y.) said the Republican arguments against the bill are “ridiculous and baseless.”
It is utterly unconscionable to me that my Republican colleagues decided to put their own petty, partisan agenda ahead of the solemn moral obligation to help the countless volunteers who were there for us in our nation’s greatest hour of need. Shame on them.
Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-N.Y), one of the bill’s chief sponsors, said she expects the House to take up the Sept. 11 medical aid bill when it returns from its August recess under normal rules that require just a simple majority for passage.
Nine long years after the attacks, the living victims of 9/11 are still suffering. We must pass this bill. It is the least we can do as a grateful nation.
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8 Comments
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THIS IS SURE AN INDICATOR OF WHAT REPUGNICANS CARE ABOUT, THE RICH! AND NOTHING ELSE!
Yes, it is quite obvious, but many workers continue to vote for them, even union members, even though that is the equilvalent of a chicken voting for Colonel Sanders. This fall, it will happen again, because many voters will just want to throw out incumbents, or vote for ‘independent’ millionaires, and perhaps will put even less thought into the process than the chicken. This will continue until a real alternative is posed. Until then, we are stuck in this pattern of decline: long, tortuous periods of Republican domination, supplanted by a smooth talking Democrat for a while, whose implementation of a modified Republican policy will pave the way for the Republican return. The only constants are :
1) steady decling in standard of living of the working class
2) steady export of union jobs, and manufacturing jobs in general
3) more and more imperial US military missions around the globe – endless occupations and the militarization of our youth, who see no other work available than war, and return from war injured and damaged by the experience.
This will never change until we form a Labor Party and stand up and tell our tired, aging, incurious, out of shape class that this governent is not, nor was it ever, a democracy – it is a brutal dictatorship of the superrich, with a phoney, limited electoral windowdressing. The working class has no true reliable tribune in Congress – only fair-weather “friends” in one rich man’s party or the other. We are at 7 % in the private sector, and the public sector is under massive attack. I hope we do not wait until it is too late.
Republicans blocked ending the subsidies given Big Oil. They oppose ending the tax breaks corporations get to ship jobs overseas. And they oppose making foreign companies pay their fair share of taxes.
They want to extend Bush’s tax breaks for the rich. Republicans want only the working class to pay!
Folks, you need to understand why the Republicans always vote agains the Democrats. They think we are socialists(communists) and therefore a threat to this country. They are NOT going to vote for any bill that strengthens socialists(communists). Period!
Would love to see a list of all the 159 nay sayers. Since these folks get wonderful medical care, guess they don’t care about people who put themselves in harms way to help the victims.
Oh, I wish I had a Rep. like Anthony Wiener. Not the no man Scott Garrett. He used to be my Rep. Then, I moved to NJ. Wiener tells the truth!
Why did they need 2/3 of the vote to pass this bill? What’s with Congress? In the Senate you need 60 votes just to vote on a bill. Since 82 senators are from states that together have the population of the nine largest states, with only 18 senators, how can we call this country democratic? For that matter, do we really need a senate? New Zealand has done pretty well without one.
Let’s hope these amoral agents of hatred of the common man are cutting their own throats politically. That will only happen, though, if the rank and file citizenry wake up to the truth, and that’s an iffy proposition.