Senate Republicans Kill 9/11 First Responders Bill

Remember, remember who cared not for our heroes

Despicable. Reprehensible. Unfathomable. Cynical. Business as usual.

These are all ways to describe the successful effort of Republicans in the United States Senate last week to prevent the 9/11 First Responders Bill from getting an up-or-down vote. The bill, which overwhelmingly passed the House of Representatives and had majority support in the Senate, would have provided lifelong medical care to the heroes of 9/11 who braved a toxic soup of fire, ash, and dangerous debris to search for survivors and recover the dead at Ground Zero.

The total cost of the 9/11 bill was estimated at $7.4 billion - too much money to spend, they said. Apparently, the number-one priority for Senate Republicans was passing an extension of the George Bush's millionaire tax cuts. The cost of the tax cut package is estimated at $828 billion - not one dime of it offset as Republicans demanded for the 9/11 bill.

"Burr demonstrated, along with every other Republican senator, that stopping a 3 percent tax increase on the top 2 percent of wealthiest Americans is more important than providing 9/11 responders with a health care bill," said Greensboro professional firefighter and Local 947 VP, Dave Coker.

Final Daily Show of 2010 dedicated to covering 9/11 bill

Perhaps the best coverage of this bill and the failure of Senate Republicans to allow its passage has come not from cable news or NBC, CBS, and ABC - but from The Daily Show with Jon Stewart.  Stewart devoted the entire last episode of 2010 to the topic. It's worth watching:

"Apparently, the party that turned 9/11 into a catchphrase are now moving suspiciously into a pre-9/11 mentality when it comes to this bill. What's more, none of the three broadcast networks has mentioned this on their evening newscasts for two and half months."

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Part 2: