Maddow Outlines How Governor Snyder’s Misdeeds Extend Beyond Flint Water Crisis


MSNBC commentator Rachel Maddow outlined on Friday why Governor Rick Snyder’s actions as governor are some of the most irresponsible in the country, even beyond what’s happened with the water crisis in Flint. This comes fresh on the heels of Michigan House Minority Leader Tim Griemel’s calling on Snyder to resign earlier in the week.

Maddow showed how Snyder stripped public funding, $4 million per year to be exact, for a home that treats disabled veterans that has been in operation since the 1800s by getting rid of the state workers and replacing them with folks who belonged to a private company.

This decision, Maddow continued, caused a lot of dismay within the community and among the veterans themselves.

She mentioned how one veteran said of the caretakers were, “like family” to them and another said he couldn’t imagine how they could possibly replace the workers who had been there for so long and knew how to properly care for each and every one of them.

That wasn’t even the worst part of it all, though.

The New York Times reported how that veteran then sued. He claimed there was overwhelming evidence that the care was severely diminished after the contractor group dropped the 150 state workers. As a result, a judge then placed a temporary injunction on the move.




However, the Michigan Court of Appeals ultimately found that because “residence at the home was voluntary and that veterans were free to relocate if the care wasn’t up to par,” that the state could go through with the switch.

Jump forward to Feb. 19, though, and the state auditor found that:

“Workers at a Michigan veterans home falsely claimed they were checking on patients after being alerted of possible falls, failed to properly investigate allegations of abuse and neglect, and took too long to fill prescriptions,” the Free Press reported.  

The audit also found that of the 38 abuse complaints made during a 23-month period, nine of them weren’t forwarded to the proper nursing director, which was a violation of policy. This has not been the only move that a growing number of people in Michigan have come to despise Snyder for making, either.

Maddow shifted gears and talked about the condition of Detroit’s public schools.

The school district is practically bankrupt, she said, mentioning how they’re about to run out of money in April. There’s also mold being found in school building walls, rats in school rooms and illnesses being reported by multiple staff members.

Hundreds of teachers and staff members have contracted what many are calling the “Snyder flu,” which is in reference to the governor, who many say is not properly addressing the needs of Detroit’s schools.

A story on Vox.com mentions how these issues have led to many teacher absences in mid-January alone.

 “…more than 850 teacher absences forced the district to shut down 88 of Detroit’s 97 public school buildings, leaving the majority of the roughly 52,000 enrolled students without a classroom,” it states.

This came at a time when the then-emergency manager Darnell Earley said that the educators were “acting in an unethical and unacceptable manner” by holding the sickouts that closed schools for days.

In response, one teacher who had been an educator in Detroit for 24 years wrote a letter to Earley that stated, in part,

“You described the actions of protesting teachers as “unethical”. I’m curious, then, how you would characterize the learning conditions of the children of Detroit Public Schools that have existed for years. These deplorable learning conditions happen to also be the teachers’ working conditions. We deal with unsafe environments – both in the neighborhoods surrounding our schools and often within the schools themselves.”

Earley has since resigned, a year after being appointed to the position by Snyder.

Finally, Maddow brought up the issue with a 98-year-old pipeline running downstream from a primary drinking-water intake for Detroit.

A company is exploring the possibility of shipping heavy crude oil into Canada via that pipeline, without any public hearings or environmental assessments given and how Snyder is OK with this plan. Maddow questioned if maybe someone in Snyder’s administration could maybe have asked some questions about this prospect before the public comment period ended.

“‘You know what, if there was a federal review going on of the prospect of running crude oil through 100-year-old pipeline directly upstream from the water intake for your state’s biggest city, don’t you think somebody might have noticed that?’ she asked. ‘Yeah it’s a federal review but nobody at the state said anything, did anything…we don’t know if they noticed.'”

All this, of course, is in addition to the crisis in Flint regarding its drinking water which is now expected to cost the US $300 billion to resolve.

At least 12 lawsuits have been filed in various state, federal and local courts, too, on behalf of Flint residents who have been drinking the polluted water for almost two years. Snyder is listed on all of these suits, along with other state officials and Flint city employees.

Featured image courtesy of Wikimedia Commons.