Would you for a lousy $150,000?

The people who built our nuclear weapons during the Cold War are sick and dying from long term exposure to radioactive material. But of course, Bush and his Department of Labor (DOL) are trying to screw them out of being rightfully compensated for their illnesses.

The DOL, with assistance from the White House are balking at paying workers $150,000 each, estimated total cost, '$7 billion over the next 10 years'.

They just don't have it in them. Do what's right for $7 billion - a measly $150,000 each.

For the same amount George Bush will spend in the next 3 weeks in Iraq, we could have taken care of all these injured workers over the next 10 years.

Nice choice.

Feds tried to cut aid

Federal officials secretly schemed to limit payouts for sick and dying nuclear weapons workers, including thousands from the Rocky Flats plant outside Denver, newly released documents show.

The officials responsible for helping those workers went behind their boss's back, called on White House officials for help and tried to hide their efforts, according to internal e-mails and memos obtained by a congressional committee and posted on its Web site.

They also wanted to get the White House to override scientific decisions granting compensation and pack the program's advisory board with members less sympathetic to workers.

Labor officials say the plans were never carried out, and they deny trying to hide them.

The U.S. Department of Labor oversees the program to compensate workers whose illnesses can be tied to working with radioactive and other toxic materials at nuclear weapons plants, such as the now-defunct Rocky Flats.

More than 60,000 ill atomic bomb makers, including thousands from Rocky Flats, have sought help. About 16,000 workers nationwide have received a total of $2.6 billion. Far more have been denied or still are waiting for help.

Throughout the documents, Assistant Deputy Secretary for Labor Shelby Hallmark and other officials express grave concern that the bill for providing $150,000 per ill worker could reach $7 billion over 10 years.

Coincidentally, $7 billion is what the U.S. Department of Energy spent over 10 years cleaning up just one of its sites - Rocky Flats. The department has spent $65 billion so far cleaning up 84 of its weapons sites, which were left contaminated by the drive to win the Cold War.

In the memos, Hallmark worries about compensation costs soaring in "an arms race among members (of Congress) jockeying to demonstrate their ability to bring home 'special' benefits to their constituents." His boss, Assistant Secretary of Labor Victoria Lipnic, bemoaned, "There is not a fiscal conservative left anywhere."

Rocky Mountain News

Rocky Flats, 1995 & 2005 after $7 billion cleanup

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