Priorities

     When Congress betrays its priorities, they always seem skewed. In 2005, when Terri Schiavo was a vegetable in a hospital bed, Congress rushed through a bill demanding she be kept on life support even though her own doctors said there was no brain activity. George W. Bush, on vacation in Crawford, Texas, jumped on Air Force One and practically broke his neck to get back to the White House to sign that odious bill into law before jetting right back to Crawford, Texas.

     Because the religious right had to be heard.
     A couple of years later, war profiteers in Iraq demanded to be paid, in cash. Congress, with warp speed, rammed through a bill authorizing billions, specifically 363 tons of cash, to be sent to Iraq then dropped in the middle of a war zone.
     Because the war profiteers had to be paid.
     The year after, during the financial meltdown of 2008, lawmakers on recess got panicked calls and texts telling them to get back to DC to vote on a bailout bill of $700,000,000,000 to save the very companies who'd caused that meltdown through greed and recklessness. It failed the first time (ironically because of Republican opposition). Undeterred, Congress crafted a second bailout bill and passed that one. Rapidly.
     Because the banks and brokerages had to be paid.
     Yesterday, Jon Stewart had to provide that same Congress with a moral conscience that, much more often than not, is shamelessly and conspicuously absent. Funding for the 911 First Responders Fund is set to expire and benefits, announced the DOJ, will be slashed by 70% unless more funds are allocated.
     Most of the lawmakers on the Judiciary Committee weren't present for Stewart's tirade that lasted, ironically, for 9 minutes and 11 seconds. That's because it wasn't a full committee or even a subcommittee but a sub-subcommittee. The entire lower half of the dais was completely empty as well as many seats on the upper left half. Because sub-subcommittee members were ducking in and out going to different hearings. And Stewart called out everyone who was conspicuously absent. Their top priority, he said, should've been the 911 First Responders bill.
     It's time the right people were heard.
     It's time the right people got paid.