Here's a story that should please any decent American — especially Jon Stewart, who devoted a lot of time to fighting for this…
WASHINGTON — Lifetime health benefits for sickened 9/11 first responders won overwhelming approval Friday from Congress after a long and contentious battle. The House and the Senate both voted to extend the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, giving coverage to those afflicted with Ground Zero-related health woes for the next 75 years. "It's a very good day," said Joseph Zadroga, whose firefighter son James died in January 2006 from health issues caused by his time in toxic Lower Manhattan after the World Trade Center attack.
I think I understand why this wasn't passed unanimously the first time it was mentioned. We have a toxic, divided atmosphere in Congress and no one wants to give up anything without seeing if they can't get something in return. Still, you'd think there should be a few things that are beyond that consideration. You'd also think there are things a Congressperson could vote for or against that would cause even his or her supporters to decide the Congressperson was scum who should be turned out of office for sheer inhumanity. But I guess that doesn't happen.
Hey, I have a question and I read a number of online articles and couldn't find an answer to this. Everyone said this bill applied to "first responders" who took ill from being around the World Trade Center rubble. But didn't a lot of second responders and third responders and workers who began there a week or two after 9/11 suffer the same problems? That was a massive, nasty clean-up job. Has "first responders" become a term for all who worked there? Doesn't this bill cover people who weren't actually on duty on 9/11 but still did a lot of dirty, unsafe work to dig bodies out of the debris there and mop up after the tragedy?