Why America is short on heroes

Here’s just the latest example, torn from this morning’s headlines: 9/11 responders will not get coverage for cancer.

The 9/11 First Responder Program’s administrator has crunched the numbers, and somehow come to the counter-intuitive conclusion that the unusually high number of an unusually wide variety of cancers among 9/11 responders doesn’t quite tippytoe past the threshold of illnesses the 9/11 First Responders Bill is required to ante up for.

According to the CBS news story on the denial of health care coverage, “There is inadequate ‘published scientific and medical findings’ that a causal link exists between September 11 exposures and the occurrence of cancer in responders and survivors, program Administrator John Howard said in a statement.”

It’s the exact kind of slippery, slimy loophole that tight-fisted bastards have always exploited to keep from having to part with one cent more than they absolutely have to.

In case you’ve forgotten, the Bill itself was even controversial when Obama signed it into law. He had to battle stiff GOP opposition to even pass the son of a bitch. Why, because the GOP hates America?

No. The GOP does not hate America.

A majority of them, however, appear to like their money even more.

At the time of their principled opposition to the 9/11 Responders Bill, they swore they’d love to help the heroes of 9/11—the brave men and women we rallied around in those darkest of days following the attacks—but couldn’t, because it would necessarily create “a massive new entitlement program, expose taxpayers to increased litigation and is ‘paid for’ with tax increases…”

Oh, rich people, is there nothing you love more than your own money?

Saying disproportionately high numbers of 9/11 responders are now succumbing to cancer and not giving them the fucking benefit of the doubt is a shitty thing to do, no matter how you look at it... Except if you look at it fiscally. Financially, it makes a hell of a lot more more sense to let the damned responders pay for their own oncology specialists and not force us to part with any of our lovely cash.

They ran for office, many of the current crop of Congressmen and Senators did, on the backs of the attacks, and by extension the first responders. And as soon as they got to town, they got busy with their real work of pinching pennies until poor people bled. If a war or two comes along, put ’em on the credit card and let the next guy down the line figure it out. He’ll probably be a Democrat anyhow, it’ll be easy to dust-off the old ‘tax and spend’ bromides when he does something financially reckless—like insist on helping the American heroes of 9/11 with the medical bills they most likely incurred by running into buildings that others were fleeing.

Oh, it’ll be such great sport!

It takes years and years to document cancer clusters, years and years the program’s administration will drag out playing silly word games with the press and the courts, and which the heroes will spend dying slowly and plunging their families into crushing personal debt for generations.

Yes, taxpayer, you may rest assured that with the way the system is currently being run, nobody but the people who helped us through 9/11, and their families, will ultimately be required to sacrifice anything.

God bless John Howard and his fellow dedicated patriots who are keeping our wallets safe from the heroes of 9/11! May their financial portfolios swell in direct proportion to the number of victims their fiscal austerity produces.

Nope, they’re just not making American heroes the way they used to, and the old ones… well, they’re dying off.

Young.