This has been the honor of my live, to work with the men and women behind me.
Today it’s about the heart of James Zadroga and Joe, and the integrity of Ray Pfeifer
and the courage of Lou Alvarez and the tenacity of John Feal.
They lifted this 9/11 community on their shoulders, and they carried them home.
And I will always be so proud to have been associated with it and we can never repay
all that the 9/11 community has done for our country, but we can stop penalizing them and
today is that day, that they can exhale.
Because unfortunately the pain and suffering of what these heroes continue to go through
is going to continue.
There have been too many funerals, too many hospices.
These families deserve better, and I’m hopeful that today begins the process of being able
to heal without the burden of having to advocate.
This is a relieved Jon Stewart in the moments after the 9/11 Victims Compensation Fund passed
the Senate 97-2, only weeks after the House passed the bill 402-12.
There ended up being only 2 Senators voting against the bill, Utah’s Mike Lee and Kentucky’s
Rand Paul, both Republicans.
Paul was responsible for blocking the bill when it came to the floor for a unanimous
consent vote, when he claimed that he couldn’t possibly bring himself to vote for it without
first offsetting spending— Mr. President.
Senator from Kentucky.
Reserving the right to object, it has long been my feeling that we need to address our
massive debt in this country.
We have a $22 trillion debt, we're adding debt at about a trillion dollars a year.
And therefore any new spending that we are approaching any new program that's going to
have the longevity of 70, 80 years should be offset by cutting spending that's less
valuable.
We need to at the very least have this debate.
I will offering up an amendment if this bill should come to the floor, but until then I
will object.
And after his amendment to offset the costs of the VCF failed, he still voted no, tweeting,
“While I support our heroic first responders, I can’t in good conscience vote for legislation
which to my dismay remains unfunded.
We have nearly a trillion dollar deficit and $22 trillion in debt.
Spending is out of control.”
And in Rand Paul’s defense, he’s done that before.
He did offer an amendment to pay for the GOP tax bill, for example.
But when THAT amendment failed, he voted for the tax bill anyway, along with Mike Lee.
And that bill was not so much about making sure that our 9/11 First Responders, the people
who ran into the rubble when everyone else was running away, got the funding for healthcare
they need to survive.
No, THAT bill was to give corporations and the ultrarich a tax cut.
That bill was the one the Republicans promised would pay for itself before ultimately conceding
that it wouldn’t.
That bill was the one that Republicans promised wouldn’t lead to stock buybacks and executive
salary raises before ultimately leading to exactly that.
That bill was the one currently exploding our deficit.
And yet still Rand Paul and Mike Lee found it in themselves to shelve their fiscal responsibility
just long enough to cast their YEA votes, while failing to do so for this one.
I guess those steadfast principles take a backseat when you stand to receive a tax break.
Although if we’re looking for places to stem federal spending, we might want to take
a look at Rand Paul’s home state of Kentucky, which, according to the most recent data available,
was ranked the 5th highest state in which federal aid comprised the largest share of
general revenue.
In other words, Rand Paul is content to represent a state that is happy to reap the rest of
the nation’s tax dollars, but when he has the chance to pay it forward for a more-than-worthy
cause?
Well… it’s suddenly time to tighten those belts.
So the next time anyone on the right tries to claim, for whatever reason, that Democrats
aren’t patriotic and that Democrats are undermining the values of this country, bear
in mind that the ONLY people to vote AGAINST protecting the very lives of our 9/11 heroes
were Republicans.
So while Rand Paul and Mike Lee can tweet out platitudes on Twitter about hashtag never
forgetting the First Responders on 9/11, when it came time to put their money where their
mouths are, they managed to forget about them after all.