House GOP leaders: 9/11 first responders aid bill a massive new entitlement program

9/11 First Responders Health Care Bill Faces Key Test Vote In Senate
WASHINGTON — The Senate is headed for a key test vote on a bill that would provide up $6.2 billion to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins. Bill supporters say they're confident they have the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could try to stall a final vote as the holidays near and Congress' Lame Duck session winds down. The bill would provide medical and ec...

Tom Coburn looks to block passage of health-care benefits for 9/11 First Responders
By Michael J.W. Stickings Full credit, or almost full credit, to Jon Stewart for raising awareness of the urgent health-care needs of 9/11 First Responders at a time when most in the media, and so many in Washington, couldn't be bothered, and for advocating swift passage of the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act. As Slate's Chris Beam notes, examining Stewart's undesired role as partisan Political Activist, "[t]he bill wasn't as far from passage as it seemed -- Stewart just shined a ligh...

Grassley still undecided on 9/11 first responders bill
While it’s important to provide assistance to 9/11 First Responders sickened by the toxic dust from the collapse of the World Trade Center, that assistance should not create another unsustainable entitlement program, U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley said Tuesday in a statement to The Iowa Independent. Legislation, known as the Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, has been pending in the Senate for most of the year. It’s passage has been blocked by Republicans during the lame-duck sessio...

Key test vote in Senate for 9/11 health bill
WASHINGTON—The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said they were confident they had the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday after the Senate completes its work on an Arms Control treaty with Russia. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could try to s...

Why are Senate Republicans refusing to support 9/11 first responders?
 Why are Senate Republicans refusing to support 9/11 responders? Senate Republicans unanimously filibustered the 9/11 First Responders bill earlier this month. Tuesday Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma said he will block the bill, even if it means 9/11 responders have to wait until next year for benefits.  In spite of Senate Republicans' opposition to a bill that would provide healthcare to patriotic Americans who became sick after working in the dust of the...

WATCH LIVE: Senate Debates 9/11 Health Bill
The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Democratic aides say they expect to call for an initial vote on the 9/11 Health and Compensation bill sometime late morning. Advocates say they expect strong Bipartisan support however GOP aides this morning say several Republican senators have concerns, negotiations have been ongoing and their side does not expect the ...

Democrats slam Republicans on 9/11 health bill
WASHINGTON — The White House Tuesday told Republicans to ditch an "awful" pre-Christmas bid to block a health bill for hero September 11 emergency workers, amid agonized tales by First Responders of loss and sickness. The bill, caught up in the fierce Partisanship of a Lame Duck session of Congress, would offer Health Care to fire and police officers and other First Responders who rushed to the scene of the World Trade Center attack in 2001. Some emergency workers who survived the collapse...

The Federal Reserve: Aging Magician of the Welfare State
December Currency deposits__ supply_          growth rate        increase__              2005                       728.9              3,233.3 ...

Congress Poised To Expedite 9/11 Responders Bill Over GOP Objections
After months of GOP obstruction, a bill to help 9/11 First Responders cover their mounting Health Care costs is expected to zip through Congress. In addition to being a feather in the cap of New York and New Jersey Democrats -- who have been pushing the bill for months -- it will likely enjoy the distinction of being the last legislative item to pass the unusually productive 111th Congress lame duck session. Republicans have blocked the bill in both the House and Senate over objections to its ...

Hoyer still 'hopeful' House can pass 9/11 first-responders health bill this week
A top House Democrat said Tuesday that Legislation providing healthcare services for 9/11 Rescue Workers is still on track for a House vote this week. After talks with bill supporters in the Senate, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said he remains hopeful the upper chamber will send the proposal back to the House "by tonight or early tomorrow morning." Hoyer said he spoke Tuesday morning with Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), a lead sponsor of the Senate Bill, to discuss plans for f...

GOP unveils strict new House rules
The new House Republican majority will force lawmakers to vote when they want to raise the nation's Debt ceiling, publish committee attendance records, ban former members from lobbying in the House gym and require new mandatory spending to be offset by cuts to other programs. Those planned changes to House rules and others, all scheduled for adoption on Jan. 5, are described in a summary that was provided by House Republicans early Wednesday morning. The actual text of the rules package, whic...

WIRE: Obama's terrible, horrible, no good, very bad year...
No matter that the Recession was officially over. That sweeping Health Care changes at last had been enacted. That combat operations in Iraq ended. That General Motors was making money and hiring again. That banks paid back most of the billions they'd borrowed from the government. "This is what change looks like," Obama said proudly, after the Health Care law passed. But. The Economic Recovery was too slow. The oil gushed for too long. The Health Care law was too complicated. The Unemployment ra...

Analysis: A political rebound, but can it hold?
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama is rebounding from his party's midterm drubbing with the kind of lame-duck victory list any White House would want: a tax deal, a landmark Repeal of the ban on Openly Gay Military service, and the prospect of a major Nuclear Treaty with Russia. Each represents a different approach at deal-making, but none alone offers a clear path to governing in a divided capital over the next two years. In the seven weeks since the election, Obama negotiated with Republ...

Analysis: A political rebound, but can it hold?
President Barack Obama is rebounding from his party's midterm drubbing with the kind of lame-duck victory list any White House would want: a tax deal, a landmark Repeal of the ban on Openly Gay Military service, and the prospect of a major Nuclear Treaty with Russia. Each represents a different approach at deal-making, but none alone offers a clear path to governing in a divided capital over the next two years. In the seven weeks since the election, Obama negotiated with Republican leaders on ta...

Analysis: A political rebound, but can it hold?
WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama, whose first two years were marked by staunchly partisan votes on his signature initiatives, finds himself at a crossroads. In the seven weeks since the election, Obama negotiated with Republican leaders on taxes and left angry liberals on the sidelines. On a major Nuclear Treaty with Russia, he sidelined GOP Senate leaders and negotiated with like-minded Republicans. And with a landmark Repeal of the ban on Openly Gay Military service, he delighted liber...

First responders bill another propaganda ramrod by Dems
There is not a week that goes by that there is not something to fight about in Congress, and this week is no exception. On the fight card this week was the 9/11 First Responders Bill, formally known as the James Zadroga 9/11 Health Bill, named after a deceased New York Police Department detective who had worked in the toxic plume at Ground Zero. At issue is that Lame Duck Democrats are trying to push the bill through, as they are in the habit of doing, without providing for the opportunity for b...

Ground Zero Workers Visit Coburns Office To Beg Him To Lift Hold On 9/11 First Responders Bill
Though GOP obstructionism in the Lame Duck session has failed to stop many important bills, including the Repeal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell and the likely the ratification of the START Treaty, one piece of Legislation Senate Republicans have successfully hindered thus far is a bill to provide health benefits to 9/11 First Responders. Though few GOPers have been willing to publicly discuss their opposition — indeed, not a single Republican came to the Senate floor to defend thei...

Rachel Maddow Hails Shep Smith Over 9/11 First Responders Bill (VIDEO)
You read this correctly -- on Tuesday night's episode of her show, Rachel Maddow reached across the aisle to praise Fox News host Shepard Smith. Smith has recently been criticizing Republican senators' efforts to block a Health Care bill for 9/11 First Responders. "All hail Shep Smith at Fox News...and I'm not kidding," Maddow said. "Because Fox News can get callbacks from Republican senators, Shep Smith making a hullabaloo on his show about the Republicans who are not supporting Health Care f...

Despite New Funding Offsets, US Chamber Of Commerce Still Opposing 9/11 First Responders Bill
Last week, ThinkProgress reported that the U.S. Chamber of Commerce had quietly lobbied to help Republicans kill the "James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010," a bill to compensate the First Responders and emergency workers who suffered illnesses from working at Ground Zero. The Chamber - a powerful trade association representing the health Insurance Industry, ExxonMobil, as well as dozens of foreign corporations - opposed the bill because it paid for Health Care benefits by en...

Rachel Maddow: 'All Hail Shep Smith At Fox News' (VIDEO)
MSNBC's Rachel Maddow lauded Fox News host Shep Smith last night for his repeated walloping of Republicans for opposing the 9/11 First Responders bill. "Shep Smith making a hullabaloo on his show about the Republicans who are not supporting Health Care for 9/11 First Responders means that those Republicans might feel compelled to explain publicly why they don't support Health Care for 9/11 first responders." If you recall, Shep first said "it's disgusting" that the bill hasn't been able to pa...

Key test vote in Senate for 9/11 health bill (AP)
WASHINGTON – The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said they were confident they had the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday after the Senate completes its work on an Arms Control treaty with Russia. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could try t...

H.R.847 - James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010
James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 - Title I: World Trade Center Health Program - (Sec. 101) Amends the Public Health Service Act to establish the World Trade Center Health Program (WTC Program) within the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health to provide: (1) medical monitoring and treatment benefits to eligible emergency responders and recovery and cleanup workers (including those who are federal employees) who responded to the September 11, 2001, Terrorist a...

Key test vote in Senate for 9/11 health bill
WASHINGTON — The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Backers of the bill say they have the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could try to stall a final vote as Congress nears the holidays and the end of its Lame Duck session. The bill would provide up to $6.2 billion in medica...

Key test vote in Senate for 9/11 health bill
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. New York Democratic Sens. Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand said they were confident they had the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday after the Senate completes its work on an Arms Control treaty with Russia. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could tr...

Key Test Vote in Senate for 9/11 Health Bill
Tuesday, December 21, 2010 By Andrew Miga, Associated Press Washington (AP) - The Senate is set for a key test vote on a bill to aid people who became sick after being exposed to Toxins at the World Trade Center ruins after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. Backers of the bill say they have the 60 votes needed to prevail on the vote expected Wednesday. But they worry that Republicans who oppose the measure could try to stall a final vote as Congress nears the holidays and the end of its lame duc...