From the Wool-sack

• Publication year: 2003
• Pages: 27
• Citation: Vol. 32 No. 1 Pg. 27

32 Colo.Law. 27 Colorado Lawyer 2003.

2003, January, Pg. 27. From The Wool-Sack

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27

Vol. 32, No. 1, Pg. 27

The Colorado Lawyer
January 2003
Vol. 32, No. 1 [Page 27]

Departments
From The Wool-Sack
From The Wool-Sack
by Christopher R Brauchli

Chris Brauchli practices law in the firm of Hutchinson Black & Cook LLC in Boulder, Colorado. He can be reached at brauchli56@post.harvard.edu

If all the while I think on thee dear friend
All losses are restor'd and sorrows end.
Shakespeare, Sonnet 30

The voting machines had scarce grown cold when the lame ducks began plucking the fruits of the election from the legislative tree. Although many of us had feared that Congress would do nothing meaningful in the short post-election period it was to be in the nation's Capitol, we were in for a pleasant surprise. Congress decided to do some really meaningful things, one of which was to pass the eagerly anticipated Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 a bill that had been blocked by a group of Democrats who have little understanding about what it is that makes this country great, something Republicans have always understood. (One thing the Democrats showed they did understand, now that they had lost control of most everything, was that there was no sense in trying to block passage of bills that would pass as soon as Republicans took control in January 2003.) Hence, the passage of the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act of 2002 ("Act")

Republicans frequently complain that Democrats are all too quick to suggest that the country's problems can be fixed by an infusion of taxpayer dollars. Republicans know that in most instances, all that is needed to solve life's problems is for those in need to take advantage of good old American know-how, with which all native-born Americans (and some immigrants, too) are endowed. Nonetheless, as the Act demonstrates, flexibility is not a completely foreign concept to the Republicans. They demonstrated that they are quite willing, if those truly in need can make a case for it, to set aside their reluctance to use taxpayer dollars and help out those in need. And what better candidates for Republican compassion than the nation's insurance companies?

Insurance companies, almost as much as the firefighters and police, proved themselves heroes of 9/11. It is estimated that insurance companies paid out more than $40 billion to those suffering...