Finally, a bill Democrats ought to be able to easily pass, the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010 would have provided health benefits to Ground Zero workers and other survivors of the 9/11 attacks.

I say that it should be easy to pass, because it’s one that few politicians are actually going to say no to, regardless of how much is spent, especially with an election coming up.  Here was a chance that, had it actually been handled correctly, any Republican who voted no (possibly with the exception of Ron Paul) would have been accused of dishonoring the heroes of Ground Zero.

Of course, the Democrats are doing that, anyway, but they would of had a legitimate case if they had gone for a majority vote, instead of pushing for a rule that required a 2/3 majority, but that didn’t allow for any amendments.

The primary change Republicans wanted would have blocked assistance from going to illegal immigrants.  To be fair to Democrats, I’m not sure if I completely agree with the amendment.  As much as I might be hawkish on the illegal immigration issue, I think that if there were any illegal immigrants responding during 9/11, then at least those people should get help.

Though I guess the question is, how do you determine that?  I doubt there were great records kept during the chaos that ensued in the days that followed.  The only people known for sure are the firefighters, policemen, and responders from other agencies.  But were they the only ones helping out? For the great majority of the time following the attacks, that might be true, but especially in the immediate aftermath, I’m sure there were regular folks helping out. And in that case, I don’t care who they were.  Illegal or not, I’d like to see them get help for any conditions developed thanks to their bravery.

For any other illegal immigrants, I could see why, combined with the program’s end date of 2031, Republicans worry that it could become an entitlement program.  So I’d support a ban in that case, and some Democrats probably do, too.

However, afraid of losing votes in November from the open-borders crowd, Democrats insisted on suspending the rules, making it more difficult to pass the bill, but also blocked amendments, knowing that Republicans wanted to put the amendment up for vote. With it being such a hot topic right now, they didn’t want to alienate a core constituency.

I understand that, but now they get to spend all August telling their constituents why they didn’t want to pass this bill under the normal rules, where, even without majority Republican support (which I doubt would have been the case), they could have easily passed it.

Democrats now have the appearance of putting their political futures above getting this bi-partisan bill passed. Rep. Andrew Weiner’s is foaming at the mouth that Republicans are doing the same thing, but I think their concerns about illegal immigrants, the length of the program, and how it is funded (by increasing taxes on foreign-owned corporations) are legitimate enough that they deserve airing before the full bill is passed.

Hopefully Democrats will learn their lesson by the time they try again, which apparently will be after they return in September.