White House vows to aid ill 9/11 workers

[sabra]

http://www.ledger-enquirer.com/mld/ledgerenquirer/living/health/15462052.htm

White House vows to aid ill 9/11 workers
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration said Thursday it will continue to help sick Sept. 11 workers, but would not say what their long-term health needs might cost.

Health and Human Services Secretary Michael Leavitt met with members of New York's congressional delegation, other members of Congress, advocates, and sick ground zero workers to discuss the first federal money for treating illnesses related to the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Sept. 11 health experts say thousands of affected rescue and cleanup workers and volunteers will need decades of monitoring and treatment. Leavitt said that by the end of the month, Sept. 11 health programs would receive $75 million for treatment.

"If the $75 million proves to be inadequate, the federal government will be part of a coordinated effort to solve whatever the balance of the problem is," Leavitt told reporters after the meeting.

"We have a responsibility. We will meet it," he said.

[C_U_L8R]

1. What about residents????

We had to live in that toxic stew
because Rudy and the FEMA clowns
brushed the hazards beneath the table

[opihimoimoi]

2. How can we believe anything these days ...given their horrid record

with the truth.

Bush had the warnings, so did his staff. ....Yet 9/11 happened without any effort to PREVENT.

Bush is Guilty of Malfeasance period.

[Kagemusha]

3. They won't offer jack squat to illegal immigrant workers.

And we all know they got a lot of the worst of it.

[hatrack]

4. Maybe they can send Christy Todd Whitman to meet with them?

That would be REALLY interesting, don't you think?

She could reprise her classic 2001 role as Bush Administration Official Lying Greenwashy Spokeswhore, which I'm sure would go over really well.

[fed-up]

5. doublespeak here-"will continue to help sick" versus "first federal money"

I am soooooooooo sick of the blatant manipulation of the news.....

[Bob3]

6. which is WH speak for "we will do nothing"

other than shift money out of a program that you already use - and of that a significant proportion will be funneled to a company that is owned by one of our cronies.

[gratuitous]

7. The Bush administration will help the 9/11 workers

Every bit as much as it's assisting the people displaced by Hurricane Katrina.

[acmejack]

8. What needy group will be cut to make up for it?

The will do the same thing as the did for Katrina & then squander the money. Just as the the funds cut from the needy in their cynical adjustment for Katrina never reached those they were meant for they will ensure these don't either.

[rodeodance]

9. well, the EPA let people in when air was bad. Feds want to shut em up.

[rodeodance]

10. UPI Giuliani opened downtown despite danger (better headline I think)

Giuliani opened downtown despite danger (better headline I think)




Giuliani opened downtown despite danger

NEW YORK, Sept. 7 (UPI) -- A 2001 memo reveals then New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani re-opened sections of downtown Manhattan weeks after the 9/11 attacks despite knowing the air was toxic.

The New York Post published a CBS News report that said the city's Department of Environmental Protection was overruled by the mayor after it said it was "uncomfortable" with the idea of reopening the area to the public.

"The mayor (Rudy Giuliani) is under pressure from building owners ... to open more of the city," a Health Department official wrote in Oct. 6, 2001.

The memo's release came as New York State Assembly Speaker Sheldon Silver said the body was preparing to allocate millions of dollars to a treatment program for downtown residents who became ill after breathing polluted air at Ground Zero, the Post said. The decision followed a Mount Sinai Medical Center report that said 70 percent of emergency workers had developed respiratory problems after Sept. 11, 2001.

http://www.upi.com/NewsTrack/view.php?StoryID=20060907-...

[rodeodance]

11. CBS: Documents: Feds, City Knew Of Ground Zero Toxins

Documents: Feds, City Knew Of Ground Zero Toxins

http://wcbstv.com/911/local_story_249164937.html

CBS 2 News has obtained documents revealing that Lower Manhattan was reopened a few weeks following the attack even though the air was not safe.

The two devastating memos, written by the U.S. and local governments, show they knew. They knew the toxic soup created at Ground Zero was a deadly health hazard. Yet they sent workers into the pit and people back into their homes.

above 2 articles are posted in LBN

[truthisfreedom]

12. that's pretty much a guarantee that they're on their own. from previous

experience... look at NOLA!

[bdamomma]

13. what??? they are going to help those workers the same way

they helped Katrina survivors, how much BS can a person take????

[ChickMagic]

16. My thoughts exactly

In Bushspeak it means, "You're on your own, suckers!"

[GoddessOfGuinness]

14. Right.

They had a responsibility with Katrina, too. In fact, unmet responsibility is the hallmark of this misadministration.

[MasonJar]

15. No doubt modeled on their help of Katrina victims.

[laylah]

17. Whatever...

just like the gov vowed to help our Viet Nam vets, Desert Storm vets, ALL vets...window dressing. And what about the residents who were reassured it was safe to go home? The rescue workers? My brother-in-law, a NYC worker, spent no less than 3 weeks, much of it on his own time, at Ground Zero. What about his family should he God/dess forbid, get sick beyond "repair"? They are all liars.

Jenn