Senate Republicans say NO to helping 9/11 First Responders

Senate Republicans on Thursday Prevented a measure to provide extra funds to September 11th first responders who have become sick from working at the World Trade Center site. The Bill that was voted down was called the Zadroga Bill after a New York City police officer who died from respiratory disease. The vote came out to 57-42 which allowed the Senate Republicans to hold up the bill.

Republicans vowed not to pass any further legislation until The tax cut and Government funding Bill were passed first. They also had concerns about how the government was going to come up with the estimated $7.4 billion it would take to fund the 9/11 bill. Sadder then the fact that it has been ten years and this bill still has not passed next year with the change in power it's very unlikely the Zadroga Bill will even make it to the house floor.

New york state Sen. Kristen Gillinbrand said "Frankly, it's exactly whats wrong with Washington -- an example of politics put above the people". Sen. Chuck Schumer vowed "to pursue every possible route" before the end of the year to pass the bill. Mayor Michael Bloomberg said it's “a tragic example of partisan politics trumping patriotism,” and that Republicans should reconsider.

I just wrote a post about hypocrisy and here you again before the ink dries the Republicans seem to through up another example. I hate to keep on picking on Republicans but when you refuse to pass a $20 billion un employment bill or even worse a $7.4 billion 9/11 first responders bill in order to first pass a $900 billion two year tax extension things seem pretty clear to me. God forbid we have another attack I hope first responders don't second guess doing their jobs because of this lack of support.













BloomBerg - Senate Republicans Block 9/11 Bill


Government Excutive - Republicans block 9/11 health bill

Hypocrisy at it's best the cost of extending the $3.9 trillion Bush era Tax cuts

With the end of the year looming the U.S. Congress has decided to work at a fever pitch to try and hammer out a deal to extend both unemployment benefits and the Bush era Tax cuts. In 2008 then Presidential nominee Barack Obama made it one of his campaign pledges not to extend the Bush era tax cuts for the wealthiest of Americans. It seems now that he might have to go back on his campaign promise in order to assure the extension of unemployment benefits to those in need.

As of today White House Deputy press Secretary Bill Burton has confirmed that negotiations are still on going and negotiators "have been making progress and the president is confident within the next couple of days" a deal will be had. Last week the house of Representatives approved President Obama proposal to extend the 2001 and 2003 Bush tax cuts for those making $200,000 or less but house republicans would have none of that. On Saturday in an attempt to appease Senate Republicans the Democrats proposed setting the limit at million dollars or more before your taxes were increased but that also was not good enough for The Republicans to get on board.

The hypocrisy here is to extend the unemployment benefits its going to cost around $20 billion and to extend the Bush era tax cuts for the must wealthiest of Americans is going to cost more around $3.9 trillion over ten years. When are country was on the verge of total collapse President Obama's economic stimulus plan cost $780 billion and people were having heart attacks. We can have another three stimulus plans of $800 billion and still have a trillion dollars left over if we don't pass the tax extensions.

The Tea Party and the Republicans gained a lot of seats in the elections this November. They ran on the platform of reducing and controlling the federal deficit. The funny thing is that the majority of them support this massive unpaid increase to the national debt. The excuse they have is the same old thing you always hear the trickle down theory . I don't know about you but
over the last ten years I really have not felt anything trickling down into my pocket. The issue that annoys me the most is the Republicans can justify NOT having the money to extend the tax cuts but Democrats have to figure out where they are coming up with $2o billion to pay for unemployment benefits. You be the judge tell us how you feel about the Bush Tax Cut Extensions.

CNN- Obama: Tax Negotiations Continue

Senate GOP rallies against Tax cuts , Mitch McConnell at the front.

It's beyond annoying now how stagnant the U.S. congress has become with it's lack of progress on any legislation. Am I missing something I thought that we just averted another "Great Depression" and that we are fighting two wars. Shouldn't it be all hands on deck putting differences aside and coming together to improve our country.

During WW2 People were asked to make sacrifices in order to help our country succeed, and succeed we did. Despite unemployment being so high , the economy not robust at all , the two wars and so on have you been asked to sacrifice anything for our country. The state governments are running gigantic deficits or going bankrupt altogether and we still want more.

I don't thinks it that much to ask if you are making more then 250k to incur a small tax increase. The majority of Americans over 90% will not see any tax increase at all. Now don't get me wrong I don't want to see taxes going up on anyone lower taxes I am all for, but isn't time to give back a little especially if you can afford it.

Senate Gop Rallies Against Tax cuts

http://www.thedailybeast.com/cheat-sheet/item/senate-gop-rallies-against-tax-cuts/showdowns/?cid=cs:headline1

The price of Cigarettes goes to $11.00 dollars a pack in New York.

The price of cigarettes are going to be at least $11.00 a pack in New York beginning July 1st. The New York state Legislature just passed a resolution adding additional $1.60 to the price of cigarettes which will bring the total amount of taxes to $6.85 a pack. New York leads the way with the most taxes on cigarettes in the entire country by far. The additional $1.60 is expected to raise an additional $290 million dollars to help combat the 9.2 Billion dollar short fall New York State is facing with its budget. The state who comes in second with the highest cigarette taxes is Rhode Island with $3.46 a pack. According to the American Heart Association this additional tax is going to make at least 100,000 people quit smoking in New York. Smokers seem to be a fast growing minority and the new tax is helping them quit at a faster rate and creating more revenue for the state, this seems to be a win win for New Yorkers. Do you think there should be a limit or a cap on the amount you can keep on taxing Cigarettes? Are smokers being taking advantage of why don’t they add these additional taxes on fast food and the like? I don’t smoke for all the obvious reasons but it does seem that smokers are easy targets for tax hikes.

NY Daily news - http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2010/06/22/2010-06-22_nail_in_coffin_legislature_oks_raising_cig_tax_160_to_us_high_435_a_pack.html#ixzz0raaf1Ptg