9/11 first responders deserve better than Musk
By: Mike Kelly
columnist
USA Today Network
..... This is a story about what happens when our president, senator and congressional representatives don't follow through on their promises. It's also a story of what happens when someone like Elon Musk is put in charge of trimming our government's budget.
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Musk a rich kid for South Africa, was not even an
American citizen when the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001,took place. he was 30 years old and busy starting companies that build rocket ships and electric cars. He didn't formally pledged his loyalty to this nation until a year later.
..... Who knows where Musk paid much attention to the fact that roughly 3,000 people were killed when those hijacked planes creased into th twin towers of New York's World Trade Center, the Pentagon in Northern Virgina and a farm field in Pennsylvania? Who knows whether he knows that most of the dead were from the New York-New Jersey region - some 750 of them from New Jersey?
..... And who knows whether Musk is even aware that health problems from toxic materials and dust released into the air from the collapsed Trade Center;s towers in lower Manhattan have since killed an additional 7,000 people - more than double the death toll on 9/11, with most of the dead from New York and New Jersey? Such questions may seem harsh, Musk is, after all, not an expert on terrorism or public health. but such questions
need to be faced now that Musk with the blessing of President Donald Trump, has emerged as the slasher -in-chief overseeing a team of bean counters now tearing through America's vast federal budget. Sadly, these budget cutters have been using the financial equivalent of jackhammers. they should be using scalpels.
..... They should also do some homework.
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One of the latest cuts from this group of alleged budgetary geniuses is to a federal program to care for thousands of people who are now sick form all those 9/11 toxins.
..... This sort of budget busing is not just wrong. It's morally clueless - exactly the kind of mindset that should never be allowed for people whose only mistake in that they were too close to a terrorist attack that American;s government and military were woefully unprepared to stop.
..... Consider, for a moment, what took place after the Trade Center's twin 110-stroy towers feel on 9/11: a massive cloud of gray-brown dust and smoke swept over lower Manhattan The poisons from that cloud - namely asbestos, heavy metals and other toxic substances - hung in the air for months. in short, the air smelled like, a bad chemistry experiment. When the wind blew you could smell that poisoned air across North Jersey. Sometimes, you could smell it up in Westchester and Rockland counties and even on Long Island.
..... Now consider the fact that none of this destruction or bad air stopped the brave cops and firefighters form running to the rubble in the hope of rescuing survivors and then returning for months to help with the search for bodies. None of it stopped the construction workers who joined the cops and firefighters in carefully dismantling the rubble. Or the electricians and telephone installers who rebuilt the communications grid of lower Manhattan and kept the stock market, banks and brokerage firms running. Or the doctors and nurses and the priests, nuns and rabis who came to comfort so many wounded bodies and souls.
..... These are just a few of the many who sured to the rugged landscape that came to be known as "ground Zero." Many more showed up, ranging from those who drove delivery trucks to chefs who set up kitchens for the workers and massage therapists who rubbed sore backs. Even fire fighters form as far away as Los Angeles and Great Britain showed up. If you stop by a tavern a block from the World Trade Center now, you can see the walls covered with humdingers of uniform patches form those first responders who volunteered.
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In short, this was the best of America - people helping each other and not caring about their differences. Sadly, this story has now become laced by tragedy., with Elon Musk at the center.
..... More than 130, people are now resisted with the federal World Trade Center Helaht Program. But medical experts estimate that 400,000 people - scudding many residents and workers in lower Manhattan - were exposed to bad air and should be monitored.
..... Full disclosure: I signed up for the Trade Center's monitoring program after several journalists died of health-related problems, and the program urged photographers, TV crews and reporters who covered 9/11 and its aftermath to enroll. I'm not sick - thankfully.
..... But in addition to the 7,000 who have died from 9/11 health problems, there are 64,000, including some 3,500 firefighters, who have been diagnosed with a variety of cancers and respiratory problems.
..... which means the death toll will likely rise significantly in the coming years, health experts say. This problem is immediate in some cases. In others, it's a waiting game.
..... all these facts are well known - easily accessible form the federal Center for Disease Control and Prevention, which oversees the Trade Center's health program. indeed, these facts formed the basis in 2011 for the federal James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act, which was supported to provide the resources to care for a growing army of sick people.
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The law, named after Zadroga, 30 years old and alr4eady a decorated New York police detective from North Arlington, New Jersey, who was one of the first to die of 9/11-related health problems in 2006, was funded with $1.6 billion in federal funds. But congressional budget hawks from the Tea Party distrusted such spending - with some critics claiming it was a boondoggle only or people in New York and New Jersey/ As a result, the money was guaranteed or just five years.
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Which meant that the funding has to be renewed. At the same time, health costs for 9/11 victims rose. So did the number of Grand Zero veterans which were getting sick.
..... In the years since 9/11 program advocates - many suffering from cancer on trekked to Washington to lobby members of both parties in Congress or to petition the White House during the Obama, Trump and Biden presidencies to continue the funding.
..... That process, which was often time-consuming and frustrating, seemed to work - until December. [2025] As part of a year-end funding bill in the wending days of the Biden administration, a bipartisan group of senators and congressional representatives proposed permanently funding the Trade Center program.
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Then Elon Musk enter the story.
..... With the approval of President-elect Donald Trump, who would not take office for another month, Musk and a variety of budget-cutting Republicans other parts of America where the 9/11 legacy had faded, called for a trimmed-down federal funding bill. Among the cuts was the plan to permanently find the Trade Center;s health program.
..... Which means that the funding is now in limbo - at best.
..... Keep in mind hat the Trump administration is also demanding substantial cuts to the overall federal budget. So on top pf the lack of permanent funding, the 9/11 health program was told last week [03/13/2025] that as much as 20% of its staffer being fired. A few days later and after a deluge of criticism, some federal funds appear to have been restored - but only about $275,000 in research funds geared toward studying 9/11 related cancers. It was unclear whether the Trump administration would go ahead with the 20 percent staff cuts.
..... Such keen-jerk decisions-making seems to be pare for the new budgetary strategy. All thanks to Elon Musks newly cerated Department of Government Efficiency, or DOGE. The jackhammer budget cutters.
..... And now, this is the legacy of 9/11. It's a legacy that Elon Musk doesn't seem to understand. Maybe he should sick to rockets and electric cars.