This morning on Brian Lehrer's show on WNYC, Hilary Clinton (who I like, ever since she invited me to march with her in the Pride Parade a few years back) was discussing her advocacy for on-going health monitoring for volunteers who worked at Ground Zero. Who could be against that? Well, me. And the first caller after Senator Clinton had departed the airwaves. Choking on rage, he said something like, "How come every time I hear Hillary Clinton talk it involves spending money and raising taxes?"

I think that's an excellent point. Essentially, what Clinton is saying is this: people who worked at Ground Zero are experiencing onset of asthma and mental health issues. She wants on-going (and presumably lifetime) 'health monitoring' and medical care for these folks. The price tag is something like $20 million, and that money would go to Mount Sinai Medical Center to do that work. Now, not that it's a bad thing for the volunteers to have what essentially amounts to a lush, government financed health plan. I have nothing but respect and admiration for the folks that worked down there, several of whom I know well. But that's the thing. Of those I know well, all of them have health insurance. (One is an employee at my agency. I know for a fact she has full medical, including a prescription plan, and dental insurance. And since people came from across the country and around the world to volunteer at Ground Zero, is it really likely that they're going to schlep to New York to get health care at Mount Sinai?

But for arguments sake, let's assume that some of the folks who volunteered were uninsured. The average in New York State is something like 30%. I have no idea how many people we're talking about here, but let's assume that all told there were 10,000 people who volunteered in some capacity at one time or another at Ground Zero. For the seventy percent of them that have health insurance, the 'health monitoring' would be duplicative. So that leaves 3,000 who would otherwise be unable to pay for health monitoring. Hmmmm...$20million seems a lot to pay for health monitoring for 3,000 people. And, New York City has a system of public hospitals where no one is turned away for inability to pay. And if Gouverneur is pretty good. I'd go there. And, given the fact that the majority of volunteers were firefighters, police officers, and steel workers, I think that 3,000 is probably a gross overstatement. More likely, this money would go to build a new wing for Mount Sinai. Again, that's fine, but I don't think the Federal Government should be picking up the tab for that at a time when most government coffers are facing deficits and we're about to embark on what will doubtless be a costly war with Saddam Hussein.

And here's the thing that's so galling to me. It's just so scurvy, all of these folks dusting off whatever wish list they might have and lining up at the September 11th trough. I'm hard pressed to think of anything more cynical and depraved by way of response to such a tragedy.