Fox News legal analyst Peter Johnson, Jr. is mad. He's mad that Congress did not pass health benefits for 9/11 first responders. But he's not mad enough to explain why.
The bill was opposed almost exclusively by Republicans, who demanded Democrats first pass tax breaks for the wealthiest Americans.
In a three minute monologue broadcast Monday during Fox & Friends, Johnson said simply that "Congress" was to blame.
"Shame, embarrassment, outrage, anger, all are proper reactions to the conduct of our Senators, who will now find one excuse after another to explain away the fact that they have turned their back on American heroes," he said. "Heroes whose only sin was to expect nothing for their service and were then promised the world by politicians who couldn't take enough pictures with them."
Forty-one of the 42 Republican Senators voted against the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010, with one Republican, Sen. Sam Brownback of Kentucky, abstaining. Only one Democratic Senator, Harry Reid of Nevada, voted against the bill.
"In this fight, America fought America, and we all lost," Johnson added.
The bill would have improved health services and provided financial compensation to rescue workers who became ill as a result of breathing in dangerous fumes and dust at the World Trade Center.
By contrast, Daily Show host Jon Stewart featured a montage during his Monday broadcast, showing numerous Senate Republicans using the events of 9/11 for their own political advantage, then turning around years later and voting against overturning a GOP-led filibuster of the 9/11 responders' health benefits.
"You know what Republicans? You use 9/11 so much, if you don't owe 9/11 first responders health care, at least you owe them royalties," he said.
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Updated from a prior version.
(h/t The Nation)
