FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
News from Progress Michigan
December 20, 2016
Contact: Sam Inglot, 616-916-0574, sam@progressmichigan.org
How Low Can You Go? Mackinac Center Defends Emergency Manager Laws As “Chemotherapy” for Flint
Right-wing think tank doubles down in callous defense of legislation they helped draft
LANSING – In its latest defense of the emergency management laws responsible for the Flint Water Crisis, a high-ranking official with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy described the anti-democratic legislation as painful but necessary “governmental chemotherapy” for Michigan cities in an MLive interview.
This is not the first time the right-wing think tank has offered a tone-deaf defense of the EM laws, which it helped to draft in 2011. Back in July 2012, Mackinac analyst Jarrett Skorup argued that Michiganders under emergency management, including Flint residents, “should be grateful” for being denied the right to elect local officials.
“Twelve people have died. Thousands have been irreversibly poisoned, including children. What will it take for the Mackinac Center to finally admit that the anti-democratic legislation they helped to write is indefensible?” asked Lonnie Scott, Executive Director of Progress Michigan. “The criminal charges filed today against Flint emergency managers show that the EM laws paved the way for the ongoing humanitarian crisis. Instead of comparing Flint residents to a cancer that must be excised through the ‘chemotherapy’ of ruthless austerity measures, the Mackinac Center should publicly apologize for the human toll of the laws they promote and join us in calling for their repeal.”
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