Democrat policies drive another city into to the ground. Don't worry though, there is still enough of other peoples money (US Taxpayer) left to bail out another corrupt democratic-run city.
The Democrats’ Filthy Flint Water
Dirty politics lead to dirty water.
Mayor Dayne Walling, a Democrat, led a cheerful countdown at the Flint water treatment plant to press the button moving the city over to river water. Walling and Darnell Earley, the Democratic emergency manager, even raised glasses in a toast and drank the water to show that it was safe.
“It’s a historic moment for the city of Flint to return to its roots and use our own river as our drinking water supply,” Walling said. “The water quality speaks for itself.”
Flint’s city council had voted in favor of the move 7-1. Despite claims about the power of the emergency manager, the switch could not have gone forward without that vote.
Even once the problem had surfaced, the EPA knew and kept quiet. It was only once the crisis broke, that the Democratic establishment attempted to redirect the blame at Michigan’s efforts to fix broken Democratic cities like Flint using emergency managers. The war against the emergency managers is not about clean water; it’s about protecting the dirty Democratic politics that destroyed these cities.
Flint’s dirty water had its origins in dirty politics. The Democratic Party had badly mismanaged the city.
Continue reading... (http://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/261548/democrats-filthy-flint-water-daniel-greenfield)
Feds give $80 million for Flint water crisis
President Obama has announced an $80 million aid package for Flint, Mich., families dealing with a water contamination crisis there.
"We’re going to have that funding available to you by the end of next week, and that includes more than $80 million for the state of Michigan," Obama told the U.S. Conference of Mayors on Thursday. "Our children should not have to be worried about the water that they’re drinking in American cities. That’s not something that we should accept."
Obama visited Michigan — but not Flint — on Wednesday and pledged to help the city however he could.
“It is a reminder of why you can’t shortchange basic services we provide to our people and that we, together, provide as a government to make sure that the public health and safety is preserved,” he said then.
Obama declared a disaster in the region on Saturday, opening the door to federal funding for citizens struggling with waters contaminated by toxic lead levels.
Continue reading... (http://thehill.com/policy/energy-environment/266649-report-feds-give-80-million-for-flint-water-crisis)
Old Dog New Trick
01-22-2016, 09:22
There's a lot of estrogen involved in this also. So, when "strategic planning" (cross thread points) comes to mind it certainly seems plausible that women in leadership positions are capable of making sound decisions to benefit those they serve.
But it's all cool, there was a Republican male in charge of the state so it's his fault. :cool:
Probably didn't need to be pink.
I ran across this story a few days ago, it is allegedly from a Flint resident.
I find it interesting how this personal story weaves in and out of some of the points made in SF-TX original link. The author quite rationally explains the situation from their perspective, yet (cognitive bias?) misses the target.
The reason the focus is on the governor is because Flint residents blame the governor for pretty much everything that happens in Flint. To understand why, let me walk you through a major issue in the last few years in Michigan politics...
The City of Flint has been in very dire financial straits for some time because of its stagnant economy, a situation mirrored in many other Michigan municipalities. To get these municipalities into better fiscal shape, Governor Rick Snyder pushed through legislation allowing the governor to appoint an emergency financial manager to completely takeover the operations of such a municipality. This EFM would have absolute authority to do anything he deemed necessary to get a city's finances in line, regardless of the views of the elected city government. Snyder viewed this as necessary because municipal politics, local corruption, or a combination thereof was preventing sound financial decisions from being made in many townships. Snyder's predecessor, Governor Jennifer Granholm, had also appointed EFMs, but under a much more limited set of laws that granted those EFMs more limited authority.
Voters absolutely hated these EFMs because once appointed, an EFM would inevitably gut the city government. The Pontiac Emergency Financial Manager famously eliminated the vast majority of city services including the city police and fire departments -- not reduced them in size, but literally disbanded them. Pontiac is an extreme example, but bottom line is that when an EFM shows up, the result is going to be a lot of job losses and service shutoffs. These losses/shutoffs often drove more residents out of these poverty-ridden cities, reducing revenue even further, and thus again creating a financial crisis. So many cities would get caught in this cycle of EFM appointments -- EFM shows up, makes cuts; revenue falls, creating financial emergency; EFM shows up, makes more cuts; repeat ad nausea. To address this, voters repealed the EFM law by referendum.
Governor Synder remained committed to the EFM program, though. He pushed a bill through the state legislature again authorizing the program, and this time he attached a small funding measure to the bill. By doing so, Snyder prevented the bill from being repealed by voters, given that the state constitution prohibits the repeal of bills that include appropriations. Snyder then used this newfound EFM power to appoint EFMs in several highly liberal, poverty-stricken cities -- Detroit, Pontiac, and Flint. These EFMs took almost complete control, and proceeded to make numerous highly unpopular decisions in order to get things in order. The EFM in Detroit famously declared bankruptcy. The EFM in Pontiac abolished the police/fire departments. And the EFM in Flint decided to stop paying Detroit for its pristine city water, instead getting water from the Flint River, and treating that water itself. Now, to be clear -- in Detroit and Flint, most city leaders actually supported these moves by the EFM. But most citizens did not, and city leaders happily told the public that they were only backing these moves because they needed to compromise with this EFM in order to have any influence. The EFM, on the other hand, would probably say that the city leaders long wanted to do this, but couldn't lest they lose re-election, and so he was providing them much-needed political cover to get a tough job done.
The Flint City government (in coordination with state officials) promptly FUBARed the provision of water. They used chemicals to treat the water that would corrode the lead pipes, something Detroit also does. But Detroit puts in additional chemicals to prevent lead pipe corrosion, countering this effect. Flint did not put in those additional chemicals. So the pipes started breaking down, causing lead to leak into the water supply. This is super noticeable now (literally yellow water), but initially, it wasn't at all noticeable. So lots of people drank it, and there's been a bunch of lead-related illnesses as a result. State officials that were supposed to be checking to ensure that the water was safe failed to realize these problems for a number of reasons (mostly incompetence so far as I can tell). And when they realized they'd made an error, there was a lot more effort made towards covering their own asses than there was towards solving the problem.
Indeed, they falsified some data in reports to the federal Environmental Protection Agency to keep it from getting involved. But even once alarm bells were being setoff by regulators, many in the city and state government ignored them until things were REALLY bad.
So, all that said, we come back to Governor Snyder. Snyder appointed the EFM that made the ultimate decision to switch off the Detroit water network. Voters hate that this EFM is there, they hate that the EFM ignored their wishes and switched off Detroit city water, and they hate Snyder for taking advantage of a constitutional technicality to keep the EFM law even after they repealed it. Snyder appointed the state officials whose incompetence, and subsequent attempts at cover-up, prevented anyone from realizing the water was dangerous. The city residents, who already hate Snyder, take this as even more reason to hate him. And to make matters worse, Snyder reacted incredibly slowly to the disaster, only authorizing a comprehensive state-level response in the last couple weeks. The city residents take this as even MORE evidence that Snyder is a horrible governor.
So when the national media shows up to ask locals "what's going on," the locals all immediately start saying "Rick Snyder is an incompetent dictator whose poisoning our children so he can give tax cuts to the rich!" The Democratic Party, seeing a political opportunity, immediately jumps in to say "yep, exactly what they said, this tyrant is essentially injecting children with lead himself!" The Republican Party, not really wanting to highlight how one of their star governors failed to quickly respond to a disaster, isn't talking about it. And so the media, in their coverage, mostly talks about the governor (something they're prone to do anyway since he's the most well-known Michigander).
And that's why everyone is talking about the governor -- either because they hate him or because they're interviewing people that hate him.
Old Dog New Trick
01-22-2016, 12:49
and here I thought Detroit was in the last couple years a shining beacon of hope and change - after the newly elected Mayor drove all the bums, riff-raff and homeless out of downtown.
What was I thinking. Oh and yes, of course it is the Governor's fault because he is after all ultimately in charge.
This contrasts differently with the recently email I received from the WH to wit:
The White House, Washington
In 2009, when I was thirteen years old, I wrote this in a letter to the President:
"Dear President Obama,
My dad works for a company that manufactures cables for the automotive companies … This industry isn’t doing so well but these guys are still doing ok. I thought it would be nice if you gave them a visit … I am 13 years old and I am worried about my family’s future in Michigan."
That was then. Today, the company my dad works for is thriving again, giving him a brighter outlook to continue his career as an auto supplier. The falling unemployment rate makes me feel more hopeful about finding a career of my own after college. People in Michigan are more confident about the future of our state than they’ve felt in a long time.
When President Obama saved the auto industry, he gave Michiganders like me and my family hope again.
That’s why I’m so proud to see President Obama return to Detroit to talk about the resurgence of our manufacturing industry. Today at 3:25pm ET, tune in to watch his speech.
As a 13-year-old girl, I saw a few of my relatives get laid off from the automotive companies they worked for. I felt that it was unfair to them because I knew they were hard workers. Through overhearing my dad talk to customers and colleagues on the phone, I got a sense of just how much the entire industry was struggling then.
When I wrote to President Obama in 2009, I felt hopeful something could be done to improve this terrible situation.
Seven years after the President took steps to rescue the auto industry, so much has changed. I’ve seen foreclosed homes being occupied again, new homes being built, and people going back to work in the auto industry.
Today, President Obama will see firsthand the progress we’ve made here. In just a little bit, I'll be heading to see the President speak in downtown Detroit -- you can watch his speech at 3:25pm ET.
I’m proud to welcome him back to the Motor City.
Thanks,
Brianna
Brianna Leathers
Sterling Heights, Michigan
Visit WhiteHouse.gov
Some further data:
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430072/flint-lead-water-scandal
http://www.nationalreview.com/article/430279/flint-water-scandal-democrats-blame-republicans
The short version:
In sum: The Democratic government of a Democratic city destroys that city’s finances so thoroughly that it must go into state receivership; a Democratic emergency manager signs off on a consensus plan to use a temporary water source; the municipal authorities in that Democratic city responsible for treating and monitoring drinking water fail to do their job; a state agency whose employees work under the tender attention of SEIU Local 517 fails to do its job overseeing the local authorities; Barack Obama’s EPA, having been informed about the issue, keeps mum.
Republican scandal.