Republican senators blocked Democratic legislation on Thursday that sought to provide medical care to rescue workers and residents of New York City who became ill as a result of breathing in toxic fumes, dust and smoke from ground zero.
And what's the reason - concerns that the bill's $7.4 billion provisions won't be paid for with other budget offsets. This by the way is the same political party that just fought tooth and nail to extend the Bush tax cuts for two years at a price tag of $100 billion.So here's how the GOP does math - $100 billion in tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans. For 9/11 responders and NYC residents - bubkes.
And to be clear it's not even that the GOP is voting against this legislation; they are preventing the Democrats from even holding vote on it.
What is perhaps most galling about this is that this is the same Republican Party that supported spending a trillion dollars to fight wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to "prevent" another September 11th. Was any of that money offset with spending cuts and tax increases elsewhere in the budget? Ha!
Indeed, Republicans regularly demagogued any Democrat politician who spoke out against the unquenchable amounts of money we were spending on America's wars. And now when it comes to spending $7 billion for individuals who worked on the rescue operations at 9/11 the GOP all of a sudden puts on its deficit hawk hat and draws a line in the sand. Apparently all those rescue workers and residents who breathed in toxic fumes should have put on a military uniform - then the money would just start flowing.
It would be almost darkly comical if it wasn't actually happening. It's a telling reminder of the rot - and breathtaking hypocrisy - that exists at the core of the modern Republican Party.
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