President Obama is guilty for everything negative which happens in our nation and receives no praise for his accomplishments. This is your Republican Party. It fails to acknowledge that it gave us the worst president in American history.

The story of Flint, Michigan is a classic of ‘calling the kettle black.’ Early in 2014, Republican Michigan Governor Rick Snyder employed a cost-cutting measure without researching possible repercussions. He diverted Flint’s water supply from Detroit to the Flint River. Immediately the residents of Detroit’s seventh largest city began to smell the foul substance and its vulgar taste. Snyder did not react.

By the summers of 2014, the General Motors plant announced that they would no longer be using water from the Flint River; it was rusting their parts.

Testing revealed that the untreated water had caused lead in the pipes to contaminate Flint’s supply of potable water; it was unusable for drinking, cooking, or bathing. Additional testing by a hospital revealed that the water also contained the same bacteria which causes ‘Legionnaires Disease.’

Late in 2015 the state government began distributing bottled water and water filters.

Snyder applied for federal disaster relief; it was denied. Because these funds are designated for natural disasters only, they could not be used for one which was manmade. But that doesn’t stop GOP leaders in Michigan to criticize the president for not giving them money to repair their mistake.

60 percent of Flint’s residents are black, and 40 percent live at or below the poverty level. As on Flint resident said; ‘this would never have happened in an affluent, white community.’

But it’s all Obama’s fault. A Republican governor’s austerity program without prior investigation had nothing to do with the situation.

Ted Cruz has never talked about the situation until recently when he found a way to spin the truth for political advantage, claiming that the disaster is the fault of Michigan having been governed “with one-party government control of far-left Democrats for decades.” Really? Which Democrat was involved in the decision to divert the water supply?

Other states are beginning to suffer under regressionist Republican governors, but no situation is as deplorable as the one caused by Snyder.

His program of austerity will likely cost the state billions of dollars to replace the pipes which supply water to the homes, and possibly the pipes in those residences.

More than 100,000 Flint residents continue to suffer indignity and suffering as the water remains unusable in their homes.

Op-Ed

By James Turnage

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Photo Courtesy of DonkeyHotey

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