Conservatives Overwhelmingly Oppose Healthcare for 9/11 Workers

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@Scylla

1. You can’t be compassionate with somebody else’s money. You can only be compassionate with your money and effort.

2. 9/11 workers are not better or more deserving than, say, longshoreman who may injure themselves for life on the job, or truckers who ruin their backs, or coal miners their lungs. Why are demolition, construction, and others better or more deserving than everybody else who does the exact same job but just didn’t happen to do it at the WTC site?

3. Why is somebody who develops chronic lung disease who happened to be in NYC on 9/11 better than somebody else with the same disease who is in LA?

In rebuttal, I’ll quote from the “We need conservatives” why? thread. It’s a great example of the sentiment I want to express; I hope that Una Persson won’t object to its application in a different context:

@Una_Persson

…It’s what I consider a large aspect of conservatism: the individual takes first - not only, not sole - responsibility for their own self-defense. Where hardline conservatives get it wrong is by assuming that the individual has the sole or only responsiblity. We are and live in a Community, and conservatism believes the Community exists for the mutual benefit, health, and welfare of its individuals. But the individuals must step up to the plate, to use a hideous baseball analogy, and have the primary role.

That sentiment, to me, is the difference between your Mr. Potter and Una Persson’s George Bailey. The people who responded to 9/11 did so not for a paycheck, nor for personal benefit, nor out of obligation. Rather, they did so out of a sense of community and, in fact, the compassion you reference in your point 1. This makes them “more deserving” – although not “better” – than those you mention in your points 2 and 3. Really, it’s that simple.

IMHO, it is right and proper to utilize the resources of the government in return for their actions. Clearly, it’s not the only way to do so, nor is it necessarily the best way. But, IMHO, it is a good way. In fact, I’d say that it’s what community is for; and yes, those who stepped up to contribute for the mutual benefit, health, and welfare of our community deserve to now have us step up for them, if only in this imperfect way.