On April 1, the House Judiciary Committee hearings that finally began to shed some political light on the abominable $1 billion WTC Insurance Fund that has managed to deny WTC rescue workers money as Michael Bloomberg and Christine LaSala have worked with the very dollars designed to help those endangered by the toxins of Ground Zero, to ensure that New York City is free from being sued instead of helping those who deserve it began. Almost immediately, things were overshadowed by California Republican Representative Darrell Issa who claimed that the attacks of 9/11 were “simply a plane crash" while implying that the federal government had given enough money to a situation that was, in Issa’s view, essentially New York state’s problem. True, the federal government had given $1 billion and created the WTC Insurance Fund, but anyone who has been following this blog knows how well that has turned out. Issa stated that “I have to ask … why the firefighters who went there and everybody in the city of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus this being primarily a state consideration." Obviously the answer to that question lies in the fact that those within New York State in charge of the WTC Insurance Fund have done a horrible job in helping the WTC rescue workers.



As I’ve been exploring this problem, I was first struck by the callousness of Christine LaSala and how she ran the WTC Insurance Fund and her lack of compassion for the WTC rescue workers. Then as I’ve begun to realize that Michael Bloomberg is a bigger part of the problem than I first realized, I was shocked that the Mayor of the city that endured the nation’s largest terrorist attack would be so concerned with using the WTC Insurance Fund to protect his interests from liability from lawsuits. Now, I see that maybe too much time has passed and that there is a general callousness across this nation towards the rescue workers who have become ill and died in many cases. Certainly the media has barely paid attention to the WTC Insurance Fund’s mismanagement and the plight of those it was supposed to serve. It seems that many people such as Issa and Bloomberg have reached a point where they feel that a lot of money has (rightfully) gone to those who died in the plane crashes and in the twin towers and that the work there is mostly done.

Plus with the economy nearing a recession and the war being a huge burden on the federal government’s spending ability; some feel that 2001 is far enough in the past that this is a New York state health problem as opposed to something the nation should galvanize behind. And it could’ve been something New York State could have solved if Bloomberg, LaSala, and their WTC Insurance Fund cronies were more concerned with people’s health than lawsuit protection. Still, judging by the harshness of his comments, Issa immediately backpedaled when he realized his comments were political suicide. He retracted the statements and offered his concern for all affected by the attacks and admitted he was just trying to ask tough questions about the federal funding that’s going to New York.