Forget the Republican posturing and attempts at blame- shifting at the recent Congressional hearings on the Flint, MI, water contamination crisis. Republican Gov. Rick "You Make Me Sick"Snyder's own appointed task force has issued its report on responsibility for the debacle:
A task force appointed by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder to investigate the water-contamination crisis in Flint issued a blistering report Wednesday, laying blame squarely on state officials in what it called “a story of government failure, intransigence, unpreparedness, delay, inaction and environmental injustice.”
The 116-page report details a widespread lack of responsibility and leadership that contributed to the catastrophe, which potentially exposed more than 95,000 residents in the beleaguered city — including about 9,000 children under age 6 — to water tainted with lead.
The Flint Water Advisory Task Force said the state Department of Environmental Quality “failed in its fundamental responsibility” to enforce drinking-water regulations and assured the governor’s office that Flint’s water was safe when it wasn’t. The independent group faulted Snyder and his administration for failing to act even after “suggestions to do so by senior staff members in the Governor’s office.”
As we've noted in the past, this sorry episode is just one example of the social Darwinist philosophy of "e coli" (a.k.a., "bridge collapse") conservatives playing out in the real world, where the ultimate goal is the shrinking of government to the point it can be drowned in a bathtub (h/t Grover Norquist), public health and safety be damned.
The other part of this story is the inattention of the media. Once the lights go off and the cameras are gone, the story gets bottom- of- the- fold, page 16 treatment (as this article did in the print
