The U.S. Senator Holding Flint Aid Hostage

[Octafish]

The Senator Holding Flint Aid Hostage

As Flint, Michigan, deals with the effects of utter government failure, Sen. Mike Lee is secretly preventing them from receiving assistance from the federal government—all on a technicality.

by Tim Mak
The Daily Beast, March 2, 2016

The intellectual leader of the tea party movement in the Senate is secretly holding up a bill to help the residents of Flint, Michigan, who have been poisoned by their own water supply.

As Republican presidential hopefuls gather in Detroit for a critical post-Super Tuesday debate, Sen. Mike Lee is stalling plans to alleviate the nearby town’s drinking water crisis—a disaster that has a disproportionate and devastating impact on the poor and the young.

Lee is using a Senate tactic used to gum up the works known as a “hold,” which is generally kept secret so the lawmaker can remain anonymous. But two senior Senate sources confirmed to The Daily Beast that Lee is behind the maneuver to stall an utterly uncontroversial provision.

Privately the Utah Republican has relied on three reasons to justify his opposition to the legislation, all of which are procedural or philosophical.

Lee doesn’t like that the proposal is not being put through the ordinary and time-consuming gantlet of Senate procedures known as “regular order”; has objections on how money from the stimulus is being repurposed for water infrastructure; and is concerned about the federal government getting involved in what he views as a local issue.

CONTINUED...

http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2016/03/02/the-senator-holding-flint-aid-hostage.html?via=newsletter&source=DDMorning

Anything on tee vee or print in your town about this turd? Nothing in Detroit.

[tblue37]

1. KnR for visibility. nt

[Octafish]

5. America's 'Lead Wars' Go Beyond Flint, Mich.: 'It's Now Really Everywhere'

Terry Gross interviewed two academics. If you think the tobacco industry is reprehensible, the people who contaminated the nation with lead are worse. "They knew" for a century.

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/03/469039064/americas-lead-wars-go-beyond-flint-mich-its-now-really-everywhere

[Wounded Bear]

2. K & R ......for visibility..nt

[Octafish]

10. I don't know what an anime masturbator looks like, but I bet it's like that guy.

The expert on MSNBC said so, having found the average Trump supporter to be a childless adult male does that.

http://www.mediaite.com/tv/msnbc-guest-trumps-alt-right-fans-childless-single-men-who-masturbate-to-anime/

I know you know I would not make this up, Wounded Bear.

[mountain grammy]

3. Gee, I would think Mitt might have said something..

this being his Senator and all. He spoke about how bad Trump would be for America, but it's all Republicans who are bad for America and the rest of the world, for that matter.

[Octafish]

14. I heard Mitt lives in the Mitt...

One would think he'd actually care about Flint and his current or former home state and all.

The Bankruptcy and Privatization of Detroit Is a Terrifying Preview of What Republicans Want to Do to the Rest of the Country

Hold on tight to your pensions.

By Thom Hartmann / AlterNet December 8, 2013

Mitt Romney should be proud of what’s happening in Detroit.

That’s because during his time at Bain Capital, he perfected the type of glorified extortion tactics Rick Snyder and Kevin Orr are using right now rob city workers of their hard-earned pension plans.

When Mitt was running Bain during the 1980s and 1990s, the company made its money by forcing companies into debt and then robbing them blind for every last bit of cash they had.

Bain would take out a loan for, say, a billion dollars. It would then use that billion dollar loan - its leverage - to buy a company. But instead of paying back that billion dollar loan itself, Bain would dump it on the company it just bought. In other words, Bain would make the company it just bought pay for its own acquisition.

And where would that company get the billion dollars to do that? Well, good old Mitt would say that it got the money by eliminating fraud and waste. But in reality that money came from stripping the company of its assets and converting them into cash.

CONTINUED...

http://www.alternet.org/tea-party-and-right/bankruptcy-and-privatization-detroit-just-preview-what-republicans-want-do-rest

Hence, the Flint switching from Detroit City water -- it would help make the case for "Privatization" where Bain and its ilk swoop down.

If Mitt's still a Utahn, great. Wonderful state and lots of truly great people. Like Mitt, though, that particular Mike Lee is a turd.

[mountain grammy]

15. Yes fraud and waste, as in assets, people and pensions.

Mitt has a way with words.. "corporations are people, my friend." What a scourge on humanity.

[sharp_stick]

4. Mike Lee

is an odious piece of shit masquerading as a Human being. I hope he gets hit by a bus.

[annabanana]

6. He should go to jail with Snyder . . . . n/t

[mfcorey1]

7. K&R!!!

[GeorgeGist]

8. Once again Repugnicans prove ...

that government is the problem

[malletgirl02]

11. You really should post this

beyond DU. Writer a letter to the editor in your local paper, NY Times, or any paper that will accept your letter. You can also make a Change.org petition. You need to get the message out there.

[CrawlingChaos]

12. K&R

[PufPuf23]

13. No excuse for this creep being such a cruel asshole. kr

[geomon666]

16. The caption for that photo should be

"What's the problem? They're only black people."

[Octafish]

17. That's what they said about nationwide urban lead contamination.

Oh, "and Puerto Rican."

Unbelievable story that rivals the tobacco-cancer Big Lie in scope:

Terry Gross of NPR: America's 'Lead Wars' Go Beyond Flint, Mich.: 'It's Now Really Everywhere'

http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/03/03/469039064/americas-lead-wars-go-beyond-flint-mich-its-now-really-everywhere

What the lead industry and their captive regulators failed to mention: lead contaminated most everybody in the country during the 19th and 20th centuries.