Hey, national media covering the Flint, MI, water issues: Try something new – really look at the issue of why there are problems in Flint. It goes beyond a Republican governor who has been in power for about six years. Really, seriously, trace the problems back and look at what you’ll find …
First, local and state governments, primarily controlled by Democrats, for decades, failed the people of the community. Democrats failed to invest in aging infrastructure. A Democrat mayor made the decision to pipe in the tainted water for residents to drink in 2014. A Democrat who was president and a Democrat in charge of the EPA in 2000 made the change to not require residents to be notified about corrosive issues in water if the population of a community was under a certain population level, which was reported by Michigan Public Radio earlier this week in its who’s to blame segment. The previous governor, a Democrat, appointed and reappointed Democrats to the DEQ who ignored the problems in Flint for a year.
It’s true that both Democrats and Republicans created an economic atmosphere that allowed General Motors to send jobs overseas which really is the reason why the city has failed since the 1980s. That’s bipartisan.
But Gov. Snyder implemented changes at the DEQ that streamlined inefficiencies while INCREASING budget appropriations spent on environmental regulation and oversight. He also took action and fired the Democrat head of the DEQ who ignored these problems for months and months. The guy who finally took action is not to blame for decades of malfeasance by government structures and entities, mostly controlled by Democrats, for like forever. Seriously. Open your eyes, reporters.