As you may recall, last week Republicans who were holding the Senate hostage until tax cuts for the rich was a done deal, blocked health care for 9/11 responders. And apparently noting the traditional media's collective yawn at that appalling obstruction, it looks like Sen. John Thune (R-SD) felt perfectly safe to admit it:

IMUS: It seems to me and it seems to others that if we’re going to help anybody, we would certainly help these Americans who were the first responders to 9/11. THUNE: The difference I think with the tax bill is there is a deadline, Jan. 1, we have to get this done, taxes go up on Jan. 1, that’s a matter of law. We need to get the issue addressed for the firefighters and the 9/11 victims and we will ... They want to rush through all these things at the end of the year, without debate, without amdendments, with the opportunity to go through a normal process. And I think we can do that, we can do many of these last-minute initiatives they’re trying to push through, we can do them next year.

... or the year after that, or the year after that, or the year after that, ad infinitum, because Republicans have been obstructing every effort to address this issue for over four years.

And meanwhile, the men and women that Republicans rushed to call heroes and use for photo-ops at every opportunity continue to sicken and die, but that's okay because Thune and his Republican cronies will get around to taking care of them ... eventually.