"Where were you when we needed you? ”

[sabra]

http://www.nytimes.com/2006/09/05/nyregion/05cnd-health.html?hp&ex=1157515200&en=8d2171aa38effb04&ei=5094&partner=homepage

<snip>

Dr. John Howard, who was appointed by the Bush administration in February to coordinate the federal government’s 9/11 health efforts, readily admits that costly delays and missed opportunities may have shattered responders’ trust in the government.

“I can understand the frustration and the anger, and most importantly, the concern about their future,” Dr. Howard said in an interview. “I can’t blame them for thinking, ‘Where were you when we needed you?’ ”

A review of recent federal initiatives reveals a pattern of the government’s not fully delivering what was promised. Dr. Howard’s office, for example, has no full-time staff members assigned to 9/11 health issues. For the first time, money for treatment — $52 million — has been included in the federal budget, but even the officials responsible concede that it is not nearly enough. And only last week did New York City release clinical guidelines that could help doctors properly diagnose 9/11-related illnesses.

“They seem to be running from the people who are sick, not standing with them and helping them,” said Representative Carolyn B. Maloney, a Democrat who represents parts of Manhattan and Queens and has been critical of federal efforts at ground zero. “And that is just plain wrong.”

[gratuitous]

1. Think of the savings

Now all these sick people will just die quietly, and the Bush administration won't have to waste a lot of time working on their treatment or their care. Another brilliant maneuver, in that it will save a lot of money that can now be disbursed to the overrich in the form of tax cuts and no-bid contracts, lessens again the trust and the confidence that the people have in their government, and it's not like anyone in the Bush administration is going to be personally inconvenienced by all this suffering and death.

Is it Medal of Freedom time again?