As the parents and children in Flint, Michigan, were slowly being poisoned by lead in their drinking water, many officials in Republican Governor Rick Snyder’s Administration sought to belittle or downplay evidence that something was seriously wrong, according to emails released yesterday and analyzed by the New York Times:
LANSING, Mich. — A top aide to Michigan’s governor referred to people raising questions about the quality of Flint’s water as an “anti-everything group.” Other critics were accused of turning complaints about water into a “political football.” And worrisome findings about lead by a concerned pediatrician were dismissed as “data,” in quotes.
The emails, released yesterday by the Snyder administration as an attempt to show “transparency,” transparently reveal that it was not until after months of complaints until state officials finally acknowledged that the city was experiencing a public health emergency, one which was likely to permanently harm Flint’s residents. The emails show that, to the contrary, the concerns of those state officials seemed to revolve around all the money they were saving:
The messages show that from the moment Flint decided to draw its water from a new source, the Flint River, officials were discounting concerns about its quality and celebrating a change meant to save the cash-starved city millions of dollars. From 2011 to 2015, Flint was in state receivership, its finances controlled by a succession of four emergency managers appointed by Mr. Snyder’s administration.
The celebrations continued even as the evidence mounted that the water supply was contaminated. Even when the state issued advisories for residents to boil their water, the upbeat mood continued. Even when residents showed up at meetings carting jugs of brownish water, the happy talk went on. Even after the water was found to be laden with bacteria, the reaction from state officials was to deflect or deny the problem actually existed:
Still, officials seemed slow to respond. In one memo for the governor from February 2015, officials played down the problems and spoke of “initial hiccups.”
“It’s not ‘nothing,’ “ the memo said, adding that the water was not an imminent “threat to public health.” It also suggested that Flint residents were concerned with aesthetics.
“It’s clear the nature of the threat was communicated poorly,” the memo said. “It’s also clear that folks in Flint are concerned about other aspects of their water — taste, smell and color being among the top complaints.”
Ultimately these officials determined it was actually the residents’ political affiliations that were driving complaints about the “taste,smell and color” of the water they were being forced to drink.
Two state agencies responsible for health and environmental regulation “feel that some in Flint are taking the very sensitive issue of children’s exposure to lead and trying to turn it into a political football claiming the departments are underestimating the impacts on the populations and particularly trying to shift responsibility to the state,” Dennis Muchmore, then Mr. Snyder’s chief of staff, wrote in a Sept. 25, 2015, email to the governor and the lieutenant governor.
But Muchmore, whose impressive resume includes being Vice President of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, a veritable spigot of funding for the Republican Party, also apparently sought to deflect blame away from the state, suggesting the water crisis ought to be treated as a local issue:
“I can’t figure out why the state is responsible except that Dillon did make the ultimate decision so we’re not able to avoid the subject,” [Muchmore] said, in an apparent reference to Andy Dillon, then the state treasurer.
By remarkable coincidence, Muchmore has quietly walked away from the crisis and is spending his last days as Snyder’s Chief of Staff this very week before he goes off to work for a law firm (he announced he was leaving in August).
“Avoiding the subject" seems to appropriately characterize not only Governor Snyder’s response to the crisis, but—by amazing coincidence—the consensus response of the entire Republican Party, as evidenced by the complete lack of concern for Flint displayed by the Republican Presidential candidates. While Hillary Clinton, Bernie Sanders and of course, President Obama have all weighed in forcefully on this human crisis the silence of the Republicans is deafening:
The truth is that Flint, where 40 percent of residents live below the poverty level, was never on the Republican agenda. Even now, when thousands of children subsist in a city that is toxic, this remains true.
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Flint was not mentioned in the last Republican debate. Though Ben Carson, a Detroit native, on Tuesday blamed local Flint officials for the troubles, unless I missed them, no tweets in solidarity have been issued from other Republican contenders. “That’s not an issue that right now we’ve been focused on” was the best Marco Rubio could say when asked about the devastation of this American city.
Ted Cruz helpfully suggested in that the Flint crisis is a “failure of government” which seems to suggest that less government would have magically purified Flint’s water. Donald Trump, the Republican frontrunner, usually so ready to cast blame, seemed uncharacteristically subdued:
“It’s a shame what’s happening in Flint, Michigan. A thing like that shouldn’t happen,” Mr. Trump said. “But again, I don’t want to comment on that.”
Yes, it’s a “shame.” And it’s becoming fairly clear who should be ashamed.