At times like these you gotta love the peoples House.
ast Thursday the US House took up the vote on H.R.847 – James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.
As the name identifies the bill would have provided $3.2 billion over the next 10 years to fund free health care for 9/11 rescue and recovery workers who have fallen ill from toxic smoke and debris they breathed at the World Trade Center site. The bill would have also provided $4.2 billion in compensation over that same span.
Seems pretty clear enough, who wouldn’t want to compensate those that were involved in responding to the worst attack on America since Pearl Harbor? Amazingly enough … the “party of NO!” … Most Republicans refused to back the measure, calling it a “slush fund.”
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. “This fund is bloated,” said Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-Va.).