Last night, the Daily Show’s Jon Stewart skewered Republicans for killing deficit neutral legislation to provide health care to the 9/11 first responders and emergency workers who suffered illnesses from working at Ground Zero. He also mocked the celebrity-obsessed media that has completely ignored the story. Republicans, like Sen. John Thune (R-SD), filibustered the bill because they said tax cuts for the richest 2 percent were a higher priority for Congress. While Republicans quietly snuffed out efforts to compensate 9/11 heroes, they were aided by a quiet lobbying campaign by the powerful lobbying front — the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

The Chamber fought to help kill the 9/11 compensation bill because it was funded by ending a special tax loophole exploited by foreign corporations doing business in the United States.

The “U.S.” part of the U.S. Chamber of Commerce is a misnomer. As ThinkProgress reported, the Chamber represents dozens of foreign businesses in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Russia, Bahrain, India, Brazil, and other countries. An investigation of the Chamber turned up recent fundraising documents from the Chamber soliciting foreign contributions to the Chamber’s 501(c)(6), the tax entity the Chamber used to run nasty campaign ads against Democrats earlier this year.

In September, the Chamber sent a letter officially opposing the 9/11 first responders bill, called the “James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act of 2010.” The Chamber warned that ending the tax loophole would “damage U.S. relationships with major trading partners” and “aggravate already unsettled financial markets.” A lobbying disclosure filed with the Senate confirms the Chamber contacted lawmakers to help kill the bill.

In typical fashion, the Chamber has not revealed which of its foreign members had asked them to kill the 9/11 bill. As the Chamber CEO explained to the Washington Monthly’s James Verini, the entire purpose of the Chamber is to provide “deniability” to corporations that want to affect the outcomes of elections or of public policy. In 2009, the Chamber secretly used a $86 million donation from the health insurance industry to fight health reform. At the time, the Chamber lied and claimed to the public that they were simply acting on behalf of the entire “business community.”

Republicans are continuing to protest any renewed attempts to pass the 9/11 first responders bill because of the tax issue raised by the Chamber. Yesterday, Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME) sent out a statement that mirrored the Chamber’s opposition to ending the foreign corporate tax loophole.

When the foreclosure fraud mess first broke back in October, a few banks — including Bank of America, JP Morgan Chase, and PNC Bank — instituted foreclosure moratoriums, saying that they would halt foreclosure proceedings until their myriad issues with robo-signed documents and improper notarizations were sorted out.

But this momentary halt from some of the country’s biggest banks didn’t stop them from setting a record for foreclosures in 2010. In fact, it’s highly likely that the foreclosure total for this year will eclipse one million:

The number of U.S. homes taken back by lenders dropped to the lowest level in 18 months in November, the result of foreclosure freezes enacted by several banks following allegations that evictions were handled improperly…The 67,428 homes lenders took back last month were the fewest since May 2009. But even with the decline, it was enough to push the total number of repossessions so far this year to more than 980,000 – the highest annual tally of properties lost to foreclosure on RealtyTrac’s records dating back to 2005.

“It’s almost impossible to imagine that we won’t break a million,” said Rick Sharga, a senior vice president at RealtyTrac. “Unfortunately, it’s a record that we’ll probably break again next year.”

And it seems that the banks haven’t even learned their lesson from the foreclosure fraud episode. In response to the fraud, New York state implemented a law “requiring attorneys in foreclosure actions to certify that they have taken reasonable steps to verify the accuracy of documents they submit to the court.” One New York judge has used the law to strike down 127 foreclosure filings, which, while showing that new enforcement tools employed by concerned judges are helpful, reveals that the banks still don’t hesitate to bring bogus documents before a court.

With one million foreclosures likely on the horizon next year, it’s imperative that the government ramp up its lackluster and ineffective foreclosure prevention efforts. HAMP — the Obama administration’s signature foreclosure prevention effort — has fallen woefully short of its goals and the $50 billion allocated to it won’t come close to being spent. In a final kick in the pants, 2,500 homeowners were foreclosed upon while waiting to see if they qualify for a mortgage modification, in violation of HAMP.

At the same time, the regulator for Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac is refusing to allow the two government sponsored enterprises to write down mortgage principal, even though that is arguably the most effective way to keep troubled borrowers in their homes and avoid all the negative effects of a foreclosure.

Clearly, if RealtyTrac is predicting that the foreclosure record will be met and broken again next year, this is a problem that shows no sign of going away. The lackluster response from policymakers, when viable solutions and the resources to implement them clearly exist, is pretty shameful.

Last week, Consumer Financial Protection Bureau head Elizabeth Warren told Bloomberg News that Wall Street pulling in record profits and gearing up for bonus season shows “we still have a problem” with economic disparity. “This just staggers me; I mean, I just don’t have words to describe what this means,” she said. “It isn’t meaningful to talk about profits and a growing economy until American families are stabilized.”

Thanks in large part to government assistance, Wall Street has had a profit bonanza over the last two years. And according to a new report from the New York State Comptroller, while the total Wall Street bonus pool has gone down, the average bonus may be going up:

As Wall Street returned to profitability, cash bonuses paid to securities industry employees located in New York City grew by 17 percent to $20.3 billion in 2009. Given compensation and revenue trends so far this year, it appears the cash bonus pool will be smaller than last year, although the average bonus may be somewhat higher since it will be shared among fewer workers.

Somewhat reassuringly, the report noted that “regulatory reforms (both enacted and anticipated) could result in the deferral of a larger share of bonuses.” But in a bit of a kick to Main Street, Goldman Sachs is preparing to pay out $111 million in deferred payments from 2007 and 2009 (yes, two years right around the heart of 2008′s meltdown). As John Ogg wrote at 24/7 Wall Street, “this is one of those situations where it almost looks like the financial crisis never existed.”

In the meantime, wage growth in the labor market has been steady (if unspectacular and low by historical norms) recently, but as the Center on Economic and Policy Research noted, “there is no sector showing strong job growth at this point. Furthermore, average weekly hours actually fell slightly for non-supervisory workers, suggesting that the demand for labor might actually be weakening.” 2009 saw the second-lowest wage increase ever, and the prospects for these numbers improving are not good.

Wall Street is also keeping its foreclosure machine chugging along, with a survey of consumer attorneys finding that at least 2,500 homeowners were foreclosed upon while waiting to see if they qualify for a mortgage modification.

A poll released this week shows that 70 percent of Americans want to see bonuses banned this year at firms that took government funds, while just 7 percent of respondents believe “bonuses are an appropriate incentive in light of Wall Street’s apparent return to financial health.”