dojP000174.xml

dojP000174.xml

born-digital

email

yes

no

2002-01-26

Saturday, January 26, 2002 4:10 PM
Tax payer perspective

Dear Congress,
You started out with the right idea...
"The purpose of these regulations is to effectuate a coherent framework to provide full, fair, uniform and expeditious compensation to victims and families of victims resulting from the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001" - H.R.2926. Section 407

Then you had to go and promise...
"Personal representatives of decedents shall be entitled to recover full economic and non-economic loss resulting from a decedent's death..."

What?! There is NO amount of money that can give the families of those killed on September 11th back what they have lost. Therefore, to even presume we can "calculate" their loss is a completely useless and insulting exercise no matter how precise your statistics.

Please stop. There is no fair way to do this. The Congress allocated a certain amount of money. The American people want these families to receive something for a loss we can't begin to fathom ourselves. But, as the payee, I resent your use of the word "entitled." This is a GIFT, a BEQUEST not something that is OWED or DUE. As a taxpayer, I think each family should receive the same compensation whether their loved one earned $25,000 or $225,000. A life is a life. If the total dollars allocated by Congress divided by the number of people who died is $1.5 million a piece then write those checks and be done with it. That would fufill the intent to provide "fair, uniform and expeditious compensation."

Is it enough? No. There is not enough money in the world to compensate even one family the loss of their child or spouse or parent. Will everyone think this is fair? No. But there is NOTHING fair about the whole tragedy and my system is easier to explain and defend to the average taxpayer on the street then the current methodology.

Please stop adding insult to injury with the system you have devised here. As a government entity, you are supposed to be acting on my behalf. What I would like you to do is write one check for each of the deceased and attach a note that says something like..."We are so sorry for your loss. Because there is nothing we can do now other than send our condolences, please accept this check from the American people on you loved one's behalf. We want you to know that every life lost in this tragedy was a loss to our society as a whole."

Thank you for the opportunity to comment.
Sincerely,
Individual Comment
Arlington, TX

2002-01-26