Republicans, again, take the prize for hypocrisy: Blame EPA for not doing enough for water safety AND, on the same day, for doing too much.

[Note to readers:   I wrote this last week, but there's so much more pressing news so I kept putting this one off.   Sorry if it feels a little stale.  - RR]

An article by Arthur Delaney and Kate Sheppard for the Huffington Post shows the blatant hypocrisy exhibited by the Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee, Jason Chaffetz.   From his committee hearings on the Flint, Michigan water crisis, Chafetz said that the EPA had not been aggressive enough in enforcing the Lead and Copper Rule, of the Safe Drinking Water Act.

The committee had grilled EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy on the slowness of progress on revising the rule to make it stronger.   Michigan Governor Rick Snyder also got his share of criticism for the Flint water crisis, but he too tried to blame the EPA.  In fact, some Democratic committee members demanded his resignation.   But Republicans tried to divert the blame toward the EPA.

How ironic, then, that on the same day that Republicans called on the EPA for stronger rules, their Republican colleagues released their budget prosposal that slashes EPA funding -- stating as the reason:  so that the agency won't “continue to implement an unprecedented activist regulatory policy to the detriment of states, localities, small businesses, and energy consumers.”

Republicans, of course, have made the EPA a punching bag for years.   Its budget had already been cut by 20% over the past five years.  Last year they wanted to cut funding for water protection in particular by another 24%.

But now, faced with trying to save the hide of Republican Gov. Snyder, they decided to focus blame on the EPA.   Only this time, instead of blaming the EPA for doing too much, now it suits their purpose to blame it for doing too little -- ironically, the "too little" required by the slashed budget allocations.

Democratic committee member Rep. Lacy Clay (D-MO) called attention to this dissonance.  “Republicans have been absolutely slamming the EPA for overreaching at every possible turn,” Clay said. “Now they criticize the EPA for not doing more when Governor Snyder fell down on the job.”

Reporters asked Chaffetz about the apparent contradiction after the hearing.   “You gotta look at it on a case-by-case basis,” he said.

But opposite positions on the same day?

Come on, guys.   At least get your act together.

Ralph