Well, word on the grape vine is that the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, meant to provide health benefits to 9/11 rescuers, has finally been passed--and with unanimous support, no less!
"The Christmas miracle we've been looking for has arrived. We [the Democratic Senators who released this message] thank our Republican friends for coming together to fulfill America's moral obligation to the heroes of 9/11." I'm assuming this message was enclosed with a Post-It adding, "Better late than never."
This comes nearly a week after four 9/11 workers appeared on Jon Stewart to remind us that, hey, firemen and policemen and the guy with throat cancer are human beings too and dearly need our help, and Republicans would do well to remember that the next time they pull a political stunt like trying to push the Bush tax cuts.
Some bad news to go with it? The current Senate rangling has reduced the bill from its original allotment of over $7 billion to just $4.3 billion (assuming the word "just" belongs anywhere near a billion-plus-dollar plan). Assuming we're working with, say, maybe 3,000 or 4,000 9/11 workers (an estimate based on my flat-out guessing), and after making some deductions from the stated amount of the bill for establishing some form of logistics and hiring employees to put the bill into action, this still gives each individual worker hundreds of thousands, if not at least a million, in free coverage. The new version of the bill, with some amendments, has been sent back for House approval, and President Obama has given his assurance that he intends to sign it.
Along with the sweet taste of victory, and the revelry of this Christmas miracle on the part of thousands of rescuers and their friends and families, comes a sort of bitter aftertaste at the thought that there was any sort of "fight" to get this bill passed. This time, of course, it was passed with a unanimous Senate vote, but they still had to cut the bill's original proposed budget in nearly half (because when someone risks their lives for others, you can't put a price on screwing them over), and the utter disgust with Senate Republicans and their stalling tactics should go without saying.
The concerns of the Obama administration, as well as those of us who, you know, haven't sold our souls to Dick Cheney yet, become much more apparent once you realize that these monst...er, "Republicans"...are going to be overrunning Congress come January. I'll be honest when I tell you I didn't vote during the midterm elections (somebody has to clean those tables at Applebee's!), but it's hard to believe the liberal media's hype about the GOP being irredeemably evil until they pull a douchebag move such as their "Give Us Tax Breaks Or We'll Kill Your Precious Heroes" gambit, which has been enough to prove to me that there is some level of class warfare, and if we don't fight it, we die. We literally die. Or, at least, somebody somewhere dies.
The concern for 9/11 workers has been just one part of Obama's agenda during this lame-duck session. The New Start Treaty has been approved by Congress, and as far as international peace treaties with allies and former enemies goes, I don't love it, but I don't hate it either. It sounds like a good idea on paper, but we'll see what happens when it's implemented.
More good news for our nation's heroes: Our good friend and patriot, Staff Sergeant Salvatore Giunta, has been cordially invited to join Mayor Bloomberg at the New Year's celebration this year. He will join the mayor in pressing the button that lowers the New Year's ball at Times Square at 11:59:00 (or 23:59:00, for those of us on military time).
Oh, and he is also a fan of Da Bears.
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