9/11 Victim Compensation Fund

[WillBrink]

Is apparently under funded for increases in claims etc. Of all the people to step up on this, Jon Stewart is not who I would have expected. He's a strange dude, some times he says/does things I agree with, the rest of the time I think he's completely off base and a leftist dingbat. In this matter, respect where it's due:

Comedian Jon Stewart slammed members of the House Judiciary Committee on Tuesday in a hearing on funding for the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund, saying it was "shameful" that more of them did not attend.

"As I sit here today, I can't help but think what an incredible metaphor this room is for the entire process that getting health care and benefits for 9/11 first responders has come to," Stewart said in his statement. "Behind me, a filled room of 9/11 first responders; and in front of me, a nearly empty Congress."

The hearing came just hours before the full House was set to vote on a civil contempt resolution against Attorney General William Barr and former White House counsel Don McGahn.

Stewart spoke alongside Luis Alvarez, a retired detective and 9/11 responder from the New York Police Department who suffers from Sept. 11-linked cancer.



https://www.npr.org/2019/06/11/73170...-compensation?

[Firefly]

Dont nobody take this wrong but I donated during 9/11, volunteered to help raise money and a lot of folks gave. Its been 18 years and the point was to get people through a hard and unexpected time.

If they want more money they need to knock on the House of Saud's door

[SteyrAUG]

Dont nobody take this wrong but I donated during 9/11, volunteered to help raise money and a lot of folks gave. Its been 18 years and the point was to get people through a hard and unexpected time.

If they want more money they need to knock on the House of Saud's door

All of that PLUS donations made to the Red Cross after 9-11 went into a general relief fund when most donors believed it would specifically used for 9-11 victims. For me at least, lesson learned.

But good for Jon Stewart for calling Congress out on the carpet. They need more bad press for their general inaction on things like this.

[WillBrink]

Dont nobody take this wrong but I donated during 9/11, volunteered to help raise money and a lot of folks gave. Its been 18 years and the point was to get people through a hard and unexpected time.

If they want more money they need to knock on the House of Saud's door

With a few dozen cruise missiles as we should have 9/12?

[MountainRaven]

Dont nobody take this wrong but I donated during 9/11, volunteered to help raise money and a lot of folks gave. Its been 18 years and the point was to get people through a hard and unexpected time.

If they want more money they need to knock on the House of Saud's door

Not gonna happen. Not until we get someone else in the White House, at least.

[SteyrAUG]

Not gonna happen. Not until we get someone else in the White House, at least.

There is also the problem that if we thought Al Quida was a dangerous enemy, we probably can't conceive the threat that Saudi Arabia officially becoming a terrorist state would look like. Right now the Wahabhists attack the Saudi royal family and the US. While it is well known that at some levels they support and cooperate, if they officially coordinated efforts they would become a greater threat than any other Islamic country.

About the only upside to that scenario is we could officially declare them an enemy state, but then we'd need a government with the resolve to do anything meaningful. It's been a long time since Congress has had that mindset and the last President was probably Reagan. I don't see this President or this Congress being able to move forward with anything meaningful so pretending that everyone is still abiding by the Truman Accord is probably the best bet.

[sundance435]

There is also the problem that if we thought Al Quida was a dangerous enemy, we probably can't conceive the threat that Saudi Arabia officially becoming a terrorist state would look like. Right now the Wahabhists attack the Saudi royal family and the US. While it is well known that at some levels they support and cooperate, if they officially coordinated efforts they would become a greater threat than any other Islamic country.

About the only upside to that scenario is we could officially declare them an enemy state, but then we'd need a government with the resolve to do anything meaningful. It's been a long time since Congress has had that mindset and the last President was probably Reagan. I don't see this President or this Congress being able to move forward with anything meaningful so pretending that everyone is still abiding by the Truman Accord is probably the best bet.

I despise the House of Saud, but at this point, what are we to do? I thought it was the right move (overriding Obama's veto) to allow them to be sued by victims of terrorism, and I don't think we should have a Berlin Airlift-esque flow of equipment to them, but other than that, I'm not sure what we can do without creating a worse alternative.

As for the 9/11 victim's compensation fund, I don't know. Should it go into perpetuity? As I understand it, a lot of claims haven't even been processed and I'm not sure how that happened, but knowing that it's very hard to prove medical causality, are we supposed to care for them into old age? Again, I don't know.

[Todd00000]

With a few dozen cruise missiles as we should have 9/12?

Those would have been the most expensive cruise missiles in history.

[glocktogo]

I despise the House of Saud, but at this point, what are we to do? I thought it was the right move (overriding Obama's veto) to allow them to be sued by victims of terrorism, and I don't think we should have a Berlin Airlift-esque flow of equipment to them, but other than that, I'm not sure what we can do without creating a worse alternative.

As for the 9/11 victim's compensation fund, I don't know. Should it go into perpetuity? As I understand it, a lot of claims haven't even been processed and I'm not sure how that happened, but knowing that it's very hard to prove medical causality, are we supposed to care for them into old age? Again, I don't know.

I think it's better to err on the side of latitude in this case. They didn't hesitate to step up when they were needed. We shouldn't either.

Those would have been the most expensive cruise missiles in history.

Without question. There was no right answer to be had, but there were plenty of wrong answers. Attacking Iraq was one of the latter.

[SteyrAUG]

As for the 9/11 victim's compensation fund, I don't know. Should it go into perpetuity? As I understand it, a lot of claims haven't even been processed and I'm not sure how that happened, but knowing that it's very hard to prove medical causality, are we supposed to care for them into old age? Again, I don't know.

Given the boatloads of tax dollars we hand out to people for everything else, I think we can divert some of that for people who were there then and have a possible related illness now. Of course I also think every combat veteran with an honorable discharge should get the equivalent level of health care afforded to every member of Congress...or lacking that, every member of Congress should be mandated the same level of health care afforded to every combat veteran with an honorable discharge.

I generally put 9-11 first responders in the same category as combat veterans. Would have been the easiest thing to NOT run into the towers that day for some people.