As part of their never-ending struggle to put as many Americans as possible on the dole, our lawmakers have bestowed the coveted "victim" status upon a new group: the families of the 911 attacks.  Under the new "Victim Compensation Fund," the average surviving family will receive $1.6 million, though they are currently negotiating for an even bigger payoff.

But why the special status for these people when other crime victims are not compensated by the government?  If there is any justice in these payments, negligence must be involved.  Perhaps the New York Port Authority, which runs the World Trade Center was at fault for not providing a safe working environment.  But it's ludicrous to claim the buildings should have been designed to withstand such an attack.  The fact that they stood as long as they did, allowing most of their inhabitants time to get out, shows good design practice.  Were the airlines negligent in allowing hijackers to use their planes as bombs?  Clearly there's no precedent here, for hit-and-run victims of hijacked cars don't sue the car's owner.  No jury would award for the plaintiff in such cases.

The government's motives here are clarified by the fact that, in accepting the money, the families agree not to sue the airlines.  And yes, the money is being allocated as part of the new airline bailout package.  The families get lots of money; the government gets to look caring; the airlines get their corporate welfare; and the taxpayers, many of whom have generously contributed to charities to help these same people, get to foot the bill for it all.  Angry citizens dare not speak out for fear of looking like mean-spirited grinches.  Probably some victim families will refuse the money and sue on their own in the hopes of getting a bigger settlement from the airlines, but their cases will be weakened by Washington's "preemptive strike," for their injured victim status will appear more like simple greed.

To top it off, life insurance premiums are deducted from the government payments, but other charity payments are not.  As usual, the socialists in Washington are punishing the families who planned against unforeseen calamity, and rewarding those who did not, for the missed opportunities represented by those insurance premiums can never be replaced.  The message is that government handouts and charity ("a thousand points of light") are good, but private insurance is passe.

Not to be outdone, the survivors of the 1995 OKC terror attack are demanding equal justice.  We may be seeing the creation of an entire new class of federally-sponsored "victims," allowing Washington to buy votes from an ignorant and emotional public, while protecting corporate interests by manufacturing de facto tort reform.

This is a pattern we've seen before, where liberal Democrats, under a barrage of criticism, break new ground toward bigger government, and the Republicans consolidate those gains with little protest from their cowed "conservative" constituents who naively insist "the Democrats are worse."