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President Barack Obama landed in Flint Wednesday morning, marking his first visit to the city since its contaminated drinking water crisis began two years ago. “My mom said chances are you will be to(o) busy with important things but… even just a meeting from you or your wife would really lift people’s spirits”.
More than 8,000 children are believed to have drunk contaminated water in the hardscrabble northern city, which has become a focus of the country’s 2016 election campaign. The omission enabled the corrosive river water to scrape lead from aging pipes and reach some homes and schools.
Obama was greeted at the Flint airport Wednesday by Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder, who has been heavily criticized for his administration’s handling of the crisis. He seemed to amend Snyder’s admission that government had failed the people of Flint, instead stating that the conservative ideology that government should do as little as possible was to blame, The Detroit News reports.
He says that parents should take advantage of expanded medicaid in the state and have children checked for lead in their system and said everyone needs to come together to fix the problem. Still, prosecutors said he failed to perform duties required of a certified water plant operator.
The contamination began after a decision in 2014 to shift Flint’s water source from the Detroit River to the Flint River as part of cost-cutting measures ordered by Snyder, who has consistently resisted calls to resign.
“This is an exercise in asserting the responsibility that everybody has to make sure the people of Flint have an opportunity to get back on their feet”, Earnest told reporters traveling with the president.
Obama’s visit didn’t resolve the crisis; pipes still need to be replaced, but as the President explained, “I’ve got your back”. A Senate committee also approved a fund transfer to expand government-provided health insurance coverage to 15,000 children and pregnant women in the Flint area starting next week. The program should result in new jobs for Flint residents, he said, drawing applause from the audience.
There’s some sympathy for Gov. Rick Snyder after he was booed and heckled during brief remarks at a Flint high school.
A Flint municipal official struck a deal with prosecutors Wednesday, pledging cooperation in exchange for reduced charges as authorities continue investigating lead contamination of the impoverished MI city’s drinking water supply.
“I want everybody in the city of Flint to know that you should have your child checked”, he said.
As we reported, the president announced last month that he would visit the city in response to a letter from a young resident.
Protesters gathering near the school are chanting “Flint lives matter”, arguing that state officials’ response to the water situation was not enough.
The president vouched for the safety of certified filters and encouraged most city residents to start drinking filtered water instead of bottled water.
“It’s right to be angry”, he said, “but you can’t be passive”.
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Kimberly Saks McManaway, a political science professor at the University of Michigan-Flint, said local officials, so far, have been replacing a few pipes at a time. “They will be fine…as long as we’re looking after them”.
