Profit and Human Life

We've been following Jon Stewart's attacks on the U.S. Senate for failing to pass the 9/11 first responders health bill. His stunning show last Thursday was not the only time he's brought up Senate Republicans' hypocrisy and their failure to help the men and women who are actually and literally dying from exposure to toxic dust and other contaminants at the World Trade Center site.

What Jon Stewart did not tell us -- at least I don't recall this in any of his analysis of why Republican senators blocked the bill -- is that the proposal included paying for the health-care costs by closing certain corporate tax loopholes on foreign investments. Apparently, big business went nuts on their puppets in the Senate.

Now -- and Jon Stewart probably deserves some credit for this -- there's new hope that the bill will be resurrected with the costs shifted to "a 2 percent fee on procurement contracts for certain countries, combined with a visa fee." Whatever the hell that means.

FOOTNOTE
More light is shed here.