What I want to know is how getting Cancer suddenly equates to being linked to specifically 9/11?  Do any of these workers smoke cigarettes?  Have they been exposed to similar conditions (Smoke inhilation, etc) during the course of their job (Especially Fire-Fighters)?   The answer is, I'm sure people suffered illnesses from 9/11.   The problem is, you can't verify who did and who didn't in a vast majority of cases.

Additionally,  many of these people while being patriotic, were doing 'their job' and while it is very commendable and deserving of respect, we can't necessarily pay for everyone who suffers by doing their job.   Should we pay every solider who has suffered from combat?  Should we pay money to families when one of their husbands, sons, etc have died in combat?   There are a million different people who suffer just by doing a job they knew the risks / costs / issues associated with it. 

What about innocent bystanders and people who were just helping other people out during a tragedy?  Why don't they get included in this bill?  Were their actions any less deserving or heroic on that day?  I would argue, those particular people are even MORE deserving as they acted without self-concern.

Where does it start and where does it end?  What type of precedent does this set?   This is what you need to be looking at in decisions like this.  Ofcourse, on a compassionate, human-side we want to give these brave people as much help as they need.    On a broad sense,  you can't.  Not without essentially breaking the system and adding more grey areas then you can count.

And by continuing to punish businesses in this country, the United States is on a crash course for a continued recession.  There's a reason businesses are moving left and right out of the USA nowadays.  People can hate on big corporations and businesses all they want,  but at the end of the day businesses employ people.   By further punishing them you just further punish people looking for jobs, people buying the said businesses products and the general collective health of the country in general.

What do you mean supposed? Their conditions are very real. The EPA downright LIED about the safety of the air on 9/11 and now the republicans refuse to pay for these mistakes? What a load of bull..

Sure, but they have no problem throwing away $100 billion to fight these mythical "terrorists," despite the fact that there are more cases of death from peanut allergies a year in this country than from terrorist acts.

I don't get why republicans have such a hard time with giving benefits to American heroes. It's like if you're a military veteran, they want nothing to do with you.

I've argued with him before although i can't remember about what at the moment.

What I do remember is being astonished how ignorant a grown man could be to the workings of the world. You can give him facts and he will simply disregard it if it doesn't meet his world view.

Thats not to say he's the only person that does that. Heck there are people in this thread who I would say are even worst than him. Ignorance is bliss, right.

Republican party only thinks of the rich not the people who serve and protect. You know hero's.

agreed

i'm furious about this, and i can't understand how people here are trying to justify it.  Many of these people were not government employees, many of them had kids they can't support, many of them won't be able to work another day in their life.  These are REAL heroes, 2 trillion on 2 wars that nobody wants, and we are whining about 7 billion for real heroes?  Really guys?  Republicans don't care about them, and democrats just think it is a political win to bring it in now, i don't care the reason i just want it done.  The fact that is takes 10 years to get it done is ridiculous.

The NYC firefighters and police tend to have and make much more money than the average American.  Also, what are you talking about man.  The GOP is the party of the middle class that isn't unionist.  At least that is how it is in New Hampshire.  The vast majority of the non-union middle class votes GOP up here.

Yes. I didn't even try to start on that one, but the health claims are so ridiculous in the first place.

Every rescue worker who got a cancer blames it on 9/11 even if they got it only one year after the event (which is extremely unlikely). It's natural, but it's pathetic.

This is the USA law suit system in action, and shows how extremely sick it is.

It's the same thing when a guy goes to McDonalds and spills coffee on himself and then sues them for $1 million Dollars because he thinks the coffee they make is too hot. All sorts of corrupt people will always take advantage of the situation by using the bizarre and overpowered law suit based system in the USA when something out of the ordinary happens.

This is a scandal, but from the other way around. Look at it. You have two or three sky skrapers collaps, and all sorts of rescue workers go in and search the debree for a few days to months and they get exposed to some dust and chemicals. And those health problems are supposed to cost a quarter of the yearly health bill of the population of Sweden?! Because three buildings collapsed?

Sick sick sick.

I do not know the exact motivation or political reason for the Rep to vote no, but the proposed bill by the Democrats in the first place is only political and politically correct and based on emotions, to rile up emotions and take advantage of the  9/11 trauma, to use people who feel sorry for "our heroes" (yes they are indeed heroes but no, their health care expenses are not measured in the billions). They're using this proposed bill as a political manipulative tool. It's all based on manipulation and taking advantage of 9/11 and people's vulnerability after a catastrophy. It's not based on any rationality or any reason or any real worry.

The reactions in this thread are so primitive I'm about to puke. It's the classic "The rich are screwing the little guy again!".

Stop these pathetic knew jerk reactions. I know that some of you are intelligent people. Use your brains.

right i'm sure the 916 people that have already died mostly due to lung cancer and complications that were mostly in their 30s and 40s were all chain smokers.  I think we all realize that there will be fraud, some of it may be avoidable some not.  The government told them it was safe to go in, many have died and many more will.  I'm sure you know medication and treatment is insanely expensive in america compared to sweden, and we are covering these people for possibly the rest of their lives not 1 year.  Families that had their fathers die will be compensated like a widow who loses a man in war, that costs money as well.  

100 billion dollars? Try one trillion dollars, and that's only so far;

http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0933935.html

I agree with you though, the "war on terror" is the most irresponsible, reckless military action in decades. "There may be sympathizers here." "Ok, let's bomb the shit out of an entire country and ruin their infrastructure and what little means of scraping together a GDP they have. Remember to demand that NATO come help with the bills once the dust is settled despite this being an unsanctioned war with few to no justification." They also choose your government of course, flying in some exiled, Westernized puppet to rule.

The Iraq war started as a hunt for WMD's and then when everyone called the bluff since no WMD's were forthcoming (I remember seeing Powell's "briefing" live and laughing loudly at the "intelligence") it was suddenly dubbed Operation Iraqi Freedom and became a war for getting rid of Saddam Hussein and liberating the Iraqi people. The region has never been so unstable, its Haiti and Somalia all over again and if one is to wage war out of the kindness of one's heart, there are certainly other people in other regimes that are suffering more than the Iraqi ever did, with an added bonus of being in countries with little to no military organization, making a clean sweep and dethroning of tyrants all the more easy.

This case in particular does not surprise me, several countries are poor at handling veterans (and policemen, firemen, paramedics etc, anyone who has a job where they can get seriously traumatized) and their needs properly. Norway (my home country) are also doing a shitty job, I have friends who have been in Kosovo, Afghanistan and Iraq and relatives who were in Lebanon for years, none of them got any follow up exams on their condition, both mental and physical upon returning and were pretty much left working through the stress and trauma on their own. Shame, downrigt shame. Pretending to value one's effort when you pick up arms and wield them in the name of some senseless conflict with no discernable purpose under the guise of "protecing your homeland" (from what? when was Saddam going to invade the US or other parts of the West?) only to toss you a small check and a tiny army pension and a "Hey, this war fucked you up something fierce! Good luck with that and thanks for participating!"

Ah, well. That's my take on it anyway (pretty much, that is).