Now that Michigan governor, Rick Snyder, is getting credit for saying he’s really super-dooper sorry about poisoning thousands of children in Flint with lead, let’s not forget how he did it. In his zeal to be a fiscally conservative budget turnaround artist, Snyder and his crew played fast and loose with science, safety and even democracy.
Step one to making those painful budget cuts was eliminating any accountability to the voters. If the person enacting austerity budgets could be punished at the ballot box, most likely he or she wouldn’t have made the Wise and Necessary Cuts. Enter Rick Snyder’s “emergency managers,” who took over control from people like, um, mayors and city councils.
Step two is to cut budgets, everywhere and in every way possible. If money is spent on, say, additives in the water that will prevent pipes from corroding and releasing lead into the city’s water supply thereby putting thousands of children at risk of brain damage, so be it, we must save $100 a day. (Yes, for a mere $100 a day, Flint could have very well avoided poisoning an entire populous with toxics.) But spending money is bad, right? Enjoy the cartoon and be sure to dig deeper into the links behind the ‘toon!