THIS should make Boehner, McConnell and Beck cry

[nogods]

Go to the Daily Show and watch the video entitled "Worst Responders." Stay connected through the brief commercial and then watch the video of the interview with the dying first responders from 911.

The Republicans are filibustering the Zadroga bill.

They should be ashamed of themselves.







Thankfully, these men didn't cry like the Republican babies when they had to do their job:

[father-of-three]

Hmmm. I'm not sure why Beck has to be thrown into the fray here. The bill sounds noble and good from the outset. However, the claim of simplicity does not mesh with the multiple 2000+ page congressional bills that have been introduced and passed within the past 2 years by Congress.

Here's the other side of the story. Please listen to both sides and make a decision. Peace!

Why I'm against the Zadroga 9/11 health bill: Sen. Mike Enzi explains his concerns with legislation

Every member of the U.S. Senate supports the intent of the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which the Senate considered last week.

But as important as intentions are, the details still matter. There are serious concerns about the existing programs to help 9/11 first responders, and it is not clear that this bill fixes current problems.

Congress has funded numerous programs to provide care and compensation to 9/11 victims, spending several billion dollars on extraordinary and unprecedented efforts. Congress will continue to support these individuals. However, current program administrators have failed to account for much of the previously allocated money.

Before we create a new program, we need the basic facts about what worked and what did not work over the past nine years.

I would like to work with the sponsors of this legislation to try to resolve these concerns. Prior to this week's vote, the Senate Republican Policy Committee sent out an explanation of the contents of the bill. The memo stated Congress' strong support for the 9/11 heroes and also cited concerns about waste, fraud and abuse in the existing programs. The committee's summary contained contributions from the Republican staff of the committees on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP), Judiciary and Finance. Contrary to New York Daily News reports, I did not circulate a letter to discourage my colleagues from supporting this bill.

I appreciate the motivations of the bill sponsors, but rushing a flawed bill through Congress at the end of this lame duck session is not the right way to address these important issues. As a result, we are left in the situation where serious concerns have been raised and we have no real way to address them.

In order to properly address concerns with the bill, the committees of jurisdiction in the House and Senate must be allowed to do their work. The Senate Finance, Judiciary and HELP committees have not convened a single committee vote to consider this legislation. This is not a new issue. This bill has been around for several years. If the majority party really wanted to get this bill signed into law, permitting committee debate, amendments and votes would be the single best and most constructive action they could take.

One of the most significant concerns about this bill is its continued reliance on the National Institute of Occupational Safety and Health to administer 9/11 health programs. NIOSH has sent $475 million in grants to New York to pay for health care benefits. Yet to this day, NIOSH, the city of New York and the various health care providers who received grants have failed to tell Congress where that money has gone. For example, Mount Sinai Medical Center has received about $137 million from NIOSH since 2004. Until they can show where that money was spent, it is irresponsible to give them more.



Read more: Why I'm against the Zadroga 9/11 health bill: Sen. Mike Enzi explains his concerns with legislation

[CathyInBlue]

I think the OP was taking a jab at Right-wingers who show emotion by crying in public.

[Islander]

I think the OP was taking a jab at Right-wingers who show emotion by crying in public.

Epic Fail

[fuhr52]

This is a big part of the problem with government programs, If the objective isn't met we just throw more money at it and then blame the opposition of being heartless. Thus the objectives are rarely met. The private sector would re-evaluate the objective and move on. Until we stop throwing money at failed programs it will be very difficult to reduce our deficit problems.

[nogods]

Well, I can understand why the republicans would not want to vote for more money to fund health care cost of 9/11 responders given that they believe 450 million of previously granted money was not accounted for.

I guess that also explains why they stop voting to fund the Irag war after they learned in January of 2005 that 9 BILLION was unaccounted for.

Oh wait, they didn't stop voting to fund the Iraq war.

Guess those principles only apply when the funds are being used to help our first responders.

Hypocrites are so easy to expose with their own lame excuses. Thanks for providing it to me.

Epic success.

[Islander]

Well, I can understand why the republicans would not want to vote for more money to fund health care cost of 9/11 responders given that they believe 450 million of previously granted money was not accounted for.

I guess that also explains why they stop voting to fund the Irag war after they learned in January of 2005 that 9 BILLION was unaccounted for.

Oh wait, they didn't stop voting to fund the Iraq war.

Guess those principles only apply when the funds are being used to help our first responders.

Hypocrites are so easy to expose with their own lame excuses. Thanks for providing it to me.

Epic success.

Since you get your facts from the Daily Show, I'm not surprised by your conclusions. "...not want[ing] to vote for more money to fund health care cost of 9/11 responders" does not equate to not wanting these responders to have appropriate healthcare. That is a red herring.

Here we see a demonstration of a major difference between Conservative and Liberal politics. Conservatives care whether or not the bill will actually be affective, and you (and the news media) are concerned about getting the bill (any bill) passed.

FAIL x 2

[wooddoctor]

Vote R or D and get more of the same. Both parties brought us to this point..self serving POS.

[handgonnetoter]

Vote R or D and get more of the same. Both parties brought us to this point..self serving POS.

I could not have said it better!

[twogunwilly]

Fud thread. plain and simple.