As Americans pause today to remember those who died and those who tried to help at Ground Zero, let us remind ourselves on this solemn occasion that the Bush regime continues to assault that memory of that tragic event with their requisite hypocrisy and criminal neglect.

 

It is typical of the Bush administration crime family that they are denying funding for health care to 9-11 health rescue workers.

 

As the AFL-CIO blog reports: "While solemn remembrances are being held in New York, at the Pentagon and throughout the nation, there still is no permanent medicalmonitoring and treatment program for as many as 100,000 responders ”firefighters, paramedics, rescue and recovery workers” who were exposed to the stew of chemicals and other toxic substances in the rubble of the World Trade Center. Seven years later they are a still suffering from illnesses directly related to the attacks.

"In the years since the attacks, the Bush administration consistently has delayed and blocked efforts and cut funding for Sept. 11-related health care. Last year, Congress appropriated $108 million toward health care for Sept. 11 workers, but in his fiscal 2009 budget, Bush cut that by 77 percent o $25 million.

"A study by doctors at Mount Sinai Medical Center in New York City in 2006 found nearly 70 percent of firefighters, police officers, emergency medical crews, construction workers, utility workers and volunteers suffered lung and other serious health problems.

"The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act (H.R. 6594) would establish a monitoring and treatment program for responders and people who lived near Ground Zero. It is named after a New York police detective who died from the aftereffects of responding to the disaster. But it is unclear when the bill will come up for a vote."

The right wing, Republican reactionary Bush regime and its McSame-Palintology clones: without integrity or decency, always for the wealthy and corporations, against regular hardworking Americans, against and afraid of government of, by, and for the people.