NEVER FORGET: Senate GOP blocks 9/11 first responders health plan bill

[ErikJ]

Senate GOP blocks 9/11 first responders health plan bill
By Alexander Bolton and Jason Millman - 12/09/10 01:14 PM ET
http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/worker-safety/132907-health-bill-for-911-workers-fails-key-vote

Senate Republicans on Thursday morning filibustered legislation to monitor and treat first responders and emergency workers who suffered illnesses related to 9/11.

A vote to quash the filibuster failed by a vote of 57 to 42, three votes short of the necessary threshold. As a result, the proposal is unlikely to pass this year.
The bill would provide funding for a health program to treat first responders, construction and cleanup workers and residents who inhaled toxic particles after the collapse of the World Trade Center towers.
The $7.4 billion cost of the legislation over 10 years is paid for by a provision that would prevent foreign multinational corporations from using tax havens to avoid taxes on U.S. income.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) blasted Republicans after the vote.

“Republicans denied adequate health care to the heroes who developed illnesses from rushing into burning buildings on 9/11. Yet they will stop at nothing to give tax breaks to millionaires and CEOs, even though they will explode our deficit and fail to create jobs. That tells you everything you need to know about their priorities,” Reid said in a statement.

[hedgehog]

1. I want this story shouted from the roof tops!

[gateley]

4. AMEN! We should write our local newspapers, see if they

will pick up on it. I'll do the Seattle Times.

[ErikJ]

Good idea!

I'd be surprised if they print it though. Go for it.

[ErikJ]

6. Good idea!

I'd be surprised if they print it though. Go for it.

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Somebody important should have mentioned this today

[HockeyMom]

3. The winds hit Long Island days after

A greenish yellow haze hang over everything. There was a stench that was unbelieable. I remember shutting off the AC and closing all my windows. People were calling 911 and local radio stations asking what that horrible haze and smell was. People were told that the winds had carried the debri from Ground Zero to 35 miles away. The local Superintendent of the Schools ordered that all children to be kept inside until the air dissipated. The stench burned your eyes and made you cough.

I can only imagine how bad that air must have been there at Ground Zero for the first responders, and locals who lived in the area. Rudy was a REPBULICAN, as was Pataki, and many others who were in New York then. SHAME ON THEM.

[hedgehog]

5. I worked at the time at a job that occasionally required me to be

around where workers were hammering the old refractory linings (heat resistant concrete) out of furnaces. I wore a face mask with disposable cartridges to avoid inhaling particles.

[Mojeoux]

7. "K" and Friggin' "R"

Never Forget this! Thanks Eric.