Friday, July 30, 2010
  Hey,
As you may know, the 9/11 health bill was shot down by Congress last night after failing to attain the 2/3 majority necessary for passage in the House. INCREDIBLE, but not surprising as the grotesque politics (read below) were alive and well, which, ironically, cannot be said for so many the responded on 9/11. They are far from being alive and well.
The Zadroga Act (named in honor of fallen 9/11 first responder P.O. James Zadroga*) would guarantee the long term operations of health care programs set up years ago for Firefighters, EMT's, Police Officers and residents who were hurt or are sick in the aftermath of the attacks on the World Trade Center.
Republican opponents of the bill have argued that the measure, which would pay up to $7.4 billion in compensation to victims, is not tenable at a time of ballooning federal deficits. Some politicians described it as a "slush fund". Sadly, the 255-to-159 vote fell short of the two-thirds margin that's needed to bring the measure to the floor.   "This legislation as written creates a huge $8.4 billion slush fund paid by taxpayers that is open to abuse, fraud and waste," said Rep. Lamar Smith (R-Texas), arguing that it would be raided by undeserving scammers with tenuous links to 9/11.
Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) cast it as a "money grab for New York because the bill would pay for care at higher rates than Medicare". "What this is, is politics," Shimkus said. "What this is, is enfranchising a bunch of New York City hospitals."
"This fund is bloated," said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).
The vote went mostly down party lines with 243 Democrats and 12 Republicans in favor of the bill and 155 Republicans and 4 Democrats opposed. More game playing in congress.
Do yourself a favor and find out how your member of congress voted.
HERE are links to various articles related to the vote:
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/30/nyregion/30zadroga.html?src=mv
http://tinyurl.com/23e88zt http://tinyurl.com/2ubsjks What a shame that our elected officials refused to figure it out. Take Care, BillyG The Secret List 7-30-10 / 1043 Hours www.FireFighterCloseCalls.com   *James Zadroga (1971 – January 5, 2006) was an NYPD officer who died of a respiratory disease due to his participation in rescue and recovery operations in the rubble of the World Trade Center following the September 11 attacks. Zadroga was the first NYPD officer whose line of duty death was attributed to exposure to his contact with toxic chemicals at the attack site. Zadroga had joined the NYPD in 1992 and attained the rank of Detective. He was a healthy non-smoker and had no known history of asthma or other respiratory conditions before spending 450 hours participating in the recovery efforts at the 9/11 attack site. Weeks after his time at the World Trade Center site, Zadroga developed a persistent cough, and, as the months progressed, he developed shortness of breath and became unable to walk distances more than 100 feet without gasping for air. He died in 2006.