SUBMITTED BY LAWRENCE RAFFERTY, GUEST BLOGGER

Earlier in the week, the legislation that would have provided medical help for 9/11 first responders was killed by Republicans.  I was shocked to see that any political party would be against getting medical help for true American heroes.  You can imagine my surprise when I found out who was helping the Republicans defeat this humanitarian bill.  The United States Chamber of Commerce was quietly working behind the scenes to make sure this bill was defeated.  The immediate question that came to my mind was why?  Why wouldn’t the Chamber want the heroes of 9/11 to get the medical help that they need to fight the many health problems that they have incurred due to their work on 9/11 at Ground Zero? I was surprised to find out that the Chamber put the full court press on the  James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 “because it was funded by ending a special tax loophole exploited by foreign corporations doing business in the United States.”   http://thinkprogress.org/2010/12/17/chamber-911-responders/ 

Is it just me or is that one of the most disgusting and un-American things that you have heard of in a long time?  How can the Chamber members allow American heroes to go without life saving medical help, all in the name of saving foreign companies some tax money?  Once again, the main stream media has ignored this important story.  Who is going to stand up for the 9/11 heroes?