During a joint hearing on Tuesday by two House Judiciary subcommittees considering legislation to extend benefits, Issa described the Sept. 11 attacks as "a fire that had no dirty bomb in it" and added: "It had no chemical munitions in it. It simply was an aircraft, residue of two aircraft and residue of the material used to build this building."
He questioned "why the firefighters who went there and everyone in the city of New York needs to come to the federal government for the dollars versus, quite frankly, this being primarily a state consideration."Issa went on to say that he couldn't vote for additional money for New York "if I can't see why it would be appropriate to do this every single time a similar situation happens which, quite frankly, includes any urban terrorist. It doesn't have to be somebody from al-Qaida. It can be somebody who decides they don't like animal testing at one of our pharmaceutical facilities."
In opposing the legislation, Issa cited concerns about extending compensation to people who weren't physically injured and didn't work at Ground Zero. The bill would allow people who lived, worked or volunteered in the area to be compensated for psychological as well as physical problems.
Issa is trying to walk back from this, but its not going to work. He meant what he said, and he said what he meant. He is, I'm sure it will surprise no one, a typical West Coast small government conservative. He's all for government funds going to the numerous defense contractors located in his Southern California district, but human beings negatively effected by the 9/11 terrorist attacks? How dare they ask their government for help! Just who do these freeloaders think they are? WWII reparations for the internment of Latin Americans of Japanese Descent? Issa thinks that's just fine. But assistance for 9/11 firefighters who had the audacity not to die on that fateful day? They must be stopped at all costs!
There really is no way to put this delicately, so I won't even bother to try: Fuck Darrell Issa. If I lived in California's 49th, I'd file a petition to run against this moron today, and my entire campaign would be based around running these comments on a loop from now until next November.
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