Senate Dems Call 9-1-1 On The 9/11 First Responders Bill

The 9/11 first responders health care bill blocked by Republicans may be resuscitated after all, thanks to New York Senate Dems Chuck Schumer and Kirsten Gillibrand.

"We believe we are on a path to victory by the end of this week," said Senator Charles Schumer. But he was quick to add that unexpected obstacles could arise.

He and fellow New York Senator Kirsten Gillibrand outlined for reporters some changes they will propose to their bill in an attempt to win over enough Republican support for passage as Congress winds down its legislative session for the year.

They hope to do that by producing a less expensive bill that they said would end up paying for itself, with $57 million left over in a 10-year period. That money could be used for deficit reduction, they said.

Instead of costing $7.4 billion, Gillibrand and Schumer said the measure's price tag would be reduced to $6.2 billion.

Their revised legislation would impose a new 2 percent fee on goods and services from firms in foreign countries that are not members of the Agreement on Government Procurement. Gillibrand said Saudi Arabia would be one of the countries in that category.

Other ways the $6.2 billion cost of the health bill would be covered were by continuing a fee on travelers to the United States that is set to expire in 2015 and continuing another fee for outsourcing companies that have more than half of their employees on visas to work in the United States.

And of course the problem according to Republicans was that the bill would add to the deficit, which apparently is more important that the people who ran to the collapsed World Trade Center and risked their lives and their health to save people during the worst terror attack this country has seen.  The trimmed down bill, now paid for, has to pass muster with the Republicans.  If they say word boo, it's time for Chuck to go nuclear on camera.

I honestly don't know how Republicans got away with opposing this in the first place.  Democrats should have been screaming on every morning show, newscast, and Sunday roundtable they could get access to over this.  The same Republicans who said building a Muslim community center anywhere in Manhattan was an insult to 9/11 are the same people throwing the first responders under the bus?

I applaud Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand for taking the high road, but this is something that Dems should have hammered in the press relentlessly.