Drinking lead can damage people’s brains, but Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach opposes a plan to remove lead water pipes.

In their letter, the attorneys general wrote, “[The plan] sets an almost impossible timeline, will cost billions and will infringe on the rights of the States and their residents – all for benefits that may be entirely speculative.”

Kobach repeated this nearly verbatim in a March 7 post on X (formerly Twitter).

Buttigieg responded by writing, “The benefit of not being lead poisoned is not speculative. It is enormous. And because lead poisoning leads to irreversible cognitive harm, massive economic loss, and even higher crime rates, this work represents one of the best returns on public investment ever observed.”

  • @madcaesar
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    469 months ago

    First time?

    There was a republican senator who once brought a snowball into Congress to prove climate change is a hoax.

    There was once a republican congressman who claimed a woman’s body would self abort the fetus if it was a rape.

    I don’t remember their names, nor do I care to.

    • @[email protected]
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      249 months ago

      And another that was worried the island of Guam would tip over if overpopulated.

      And MTGs secret Jewish space lasers thing.

      Congresspeople have shockingly little oversight from their constituents.

    • @cybersandwich
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      149 months ago

      There was also a congressman that asked an admiral if he was worried that the island would tip over if they put a navy base on it.

      You know because that happens sometimes.

      • @Burn_The_Right
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        39 months ago

        Conservatives are simultanously cartoonishly evil and cartoonishly dumb as fuck.

        • @cybersandwich
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          29 months ago

          I just googled it again. Apparently it was Democrat rep from Georgia. Hank Johnson.

          I’m glad we have these bastions of intellect and wisdom passing laws for the rest of us.

        • @Tujio
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          19 months ago

          Sadly that one’s a Democrat.

          • @Burn_The_Right
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            29 months ago

            Neoliberals are conservatives. Unfortunately, we don’t have a progressive party in the U.S. We have a conservative party and a more conservative party.

    • @[email protected]
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      129 months ago

      Roy Atkins was the rape senator. Happened my senior of highschool, and he was running to be our senator.

      • @[email protected]
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        109 months ago

        Todd Akin. He also died of cancer a few years ago, so that’s one nice thing cancer has done.

        • @frostysauce
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          09 months ago

          If it was legitimate cancer his body would have shut it down.

    • @I_Has_A_Hat
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      89 months ago

      Don’t forget about Congressman Hank Johnson who was concerned about Marines being stationed in Guam because of his fear that “the whole island will become so overly populated that it will tip over and capsize.”

    • livus
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      39 months ago

      To be fair to those weirdos - I think only the second one made international news - at least those were adjacent to contentious issues.

      There’s normally nothing contentious about lead poisoning being a bad thing.

      It really feels like the West is on the brink of another Dark Age.