So far, Barack Obama has been one of our best Republican presidents — which is fine, except that he claims to be a Democrat. Despite his promise of “change”, some things haven’t changed at all since the days of George W. Bush.
We’ve seen unrepentant bankers get big bonuses, government advisers be recruited from Wall Street and corporations, and nearly all Americans get tax cuts.
The government still pretends that its missile-defense program works, Guantánamo Bay prison is still open, the enhanced surveillance powers of the USA PATRIOT Act are still in place, Bush appointees Robert Gates and David Petraeus are still in charge of the foreign wars we hear about, and other wars are still going on that we don’t hear about (except through WikiLeaks). Old Europe still isn’t trusted (we now know), North Korea and Palestine are still powder kegs, and Cuba is still off-limits (though the Canadians are talking to us again).
As commentator Bill Maher has observed, even Obama’s narrowly won health-care compromise was essentially the plan put forward by Republican Senator Bob Dole in 1994.
I’m not saying any of this is bad; it’s just not what we expected to happen.
How startling it is, then, whenever Obama handles something differently than George W. Bush. Admittedly, Obama acted very stealthily — on January 2, during a holiday weekend, while he was vacationing in Hawaii, where reporters wouldn’t notice.
His act was to approve a law giving $4.2 billion to people who had breathed toxic smoke at the World Trade Center site while cleaning it up after 9/11. Back then, the Bush administration had repeatedly declared that the thick smoke, which contained heavy metals and asbestos and persisted for weeks, represented no risk to anyone’s health. First responders and firefighters had had to rely on private donations to pay their hospital bills.
The Bush administration did readily pay $7 billion to the families of those injured or killed in the 9/11 attacks, in order to prevent any lawsuits against the airlines. But compensation to the cleanup crews was a different matter. The official answer was that it was difficult to show that any particular syndrome resulted directly from exposure to the smoke. The more likely answer was probably that the government was scared silly that millions of claims might be filed.
On the one hand, acts of terrorism are usually exempted from insurance policies, so no one is liable for them. On the other hand, the federal government usually does help out during other catastrophes like hurricanes and earthquakes, even though it’s not responsible for those. It’s also commonly agreed that the government should protect its citizens — think of all the money spent on things like defense and food inspection — so it could be considered liable, especially as the entire East Coast was left undefended on that day.
The new law is named after James Zadroga, the first New York police officer to die of a lung disease attributed to the smoke at “Ground Zero”. Senate Republicans tried hard to block the bill, but gave in when tax cuts for wealthy Americans were extended just before Christmas.
Obama offered a written statement that read, in full:
“I was honored to sign the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act to ensure that rescue and recovery workers, residents, students, and others suffering from health consequences related to the World Trade Center disaster have access to the medical monitoring and treatment they need. We will never forget the selfless courage demonstrated by the firefighters, police officers, and first responders who risked their lives to save others. I believe this is a critical step for those who continue to bear the physical scars of those attacks.”
No speech at Ground Zero, no words to the TV cameras — but honor has been given back to the heroes of 9/11.
