Democrats not backing down in shutdown fight over help for Flint

By Joan McCarter
Monday Sep 26, 2016 · 10:42 AM EDT

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is pursuing his favorite hobby this week: taking political hostages while racing toward a cliff. This case revolves around the September 30 deadline for passing a government funding bill. The fact that there's an election in just 43 days hasn't seemed to cause him any undue concern, other than to make him even more partisan. The funding bill he's put forward gives funding to flood-ravaged Louisiana, but ignores a long-suffering American community:

Flint—a majority African-American community—has become a living, breathing symbol of inequality in the country as residents there bathed in and drank lead-poisoned water for two years. Voting against Flint just six weeks ahead of the election would not only send a message to Flint, it could also send a message to African Americans that Congress doesn't care about them.
"It helps you understand some of the frustration in this country when the Republican-led Congress singles out the poisoned children of Flint for exclusion in its disaster aid proposal," said Adam Jentleson, a spokesman and senior policy adviser for Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV).

Rep. Dan Kildee (D-MI), who represents Flint, was shocked and angered Thursday when he saw Flint had been left behind in the spending bill.

"It sends a pretty strong message," Kildee said. "What is it about Flint that distinguishes it from these other places that rightfully qualify for help? I support helping the people of Louisiana. I am all in. What I cannot accept is a bunch of excuses, a bunch of irrelevant excuses that again leave Flint behind. It is a poor community. It is a majority African American community. It is very difficult to believe that if the conditions in Flint had occurred in a much more affluent community. ... I have no doubt in my mind that the response would have been different."
Since racism is already running rampant this election season, McConnell must have felt emboldened to pick this particular fight and achieve new lows.

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http://www.dailykos.com/stories/2016/9/26/1574400/-Democrats-not-backing-down-in-shutdown-fight-over-help-to-Flint

(Update: A temporary spending bill has passed and funding for Flint was included)