I would like to know why there seems to be a need to create a special class of people (the 9/11 first responders and others affected by the terrorist attacks of that day) who would have been the beneficiaries of a $7.4 billion medical and claims package, should Congress have passed the James Zadroga Act last month.

The bill, which failed to pass the required two-thirds vote in the House, would have created something called the World Trade Center Health Program to provide health care for emergency first responders and recovery workers who responded to the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001, and would also have provided health care to residents and area workers who were directly affected by the attacks.

There has been so much discussion about U.S. Rep. Anthony Weiner’s (D-NY) rant against the GOP for not supporting the bill, and of Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s two-thirds majority vote, but I have not seen or heard of any discussion about the need for such a program. Why not? Why aren’t we talking about why we need the bill, not just why it didn’t pass the House?

What part of health care costs for first responders are already covered by insurance plans offered by the employers of these first responders and others affected by the attacks?

For the past nine years, New York City has used 9/11 as a massive vacuum cleaner to suck mounds of money out of American taxpayers. When will it end?

What could other struggling states do with $7.4 billion in these difficult times?

Alan Whitman, Auburn