Obama Blames Antipathy Toward Government for Flint Water Crisis
- Says 'corrosive attitude' contributed to 'man-made disaster'
- President says filtered water is safe and drinks from a glass
President Barack Obama speaks at Northwest High School about the Flint water contamination crisis on May 4, 2016, in Flint, Michigan.
Photographer: Bill Pugliano/Getty ImagesWidespread water contamination in Flint, Michigan, was a "man-made disaster" brought about in part by a political preference for small government, President Barack Obama in a visit on Wednesday to the city.
In a speech to about 1,000 residents, Obama urged them to resist assumptions that their children have been permanently harmed by consuming water with lead, and blamed "a mindset that believes that less government is the highest good, no matter what." He didn’t mention Michigan’s Republican governor, Rick Snyder, who addressed the audience earlier and professes the virtues of smaller government. Snyder has borne much of the blame for the contamination.