In one of the most egregious acts by public officials in choosing budget-cutting over public health, Republican decision-making in Michigan is responsible for lead contamination in the bodies of the children of Flint that is likely to cause untold problems for the lives of those children.

Recent years have shown that Republicans at all levels of government have routinely denied the validity of basic science, if it conflicted with “the economy” or cut into the profits of the corporations and the rich who provide most of the money for their campaigns. While it is true that both major parties take money from the same sources, the Democrats seem as a group to accept scientific research and the consensus of scientists on any particular issue, like climate change. Republicans don’t.

At issue in Flint is the lead contamination of the city’s water supply, the result of an arbitrary switch from Detroit water, to water from the Flint River, which is widely known as polluted with quantities of toxins that have been dumped there over generations. The reason for the switch was the cost of Detroit city water, which comes from the Great Lakes, which collectively, represent the greatest body of fresh water on the planet. Flint had planned to get its water from a lake source, Lake Huron, but the lines had not been installed and would take some time. It was cheaper and more convenient to get water from the Flint River, until the new lines were installed.

The difference between the two sources of water was stark and it is difficult to believe that the governor and the manager of the City of Flint were not warned that downgrading the quality of water to be supplied from the river could be harmful to the city residents and, especially, the children. A large portion of the city’s waterlines is old and those portions were either made of or were held together by lead soldering, according to local experts. The river water, being more acid than the lake water, began to leach lead out of the pipes and release it into the city water supply.

Writing for Time magazine online one month ago, Nancy Loeb, an assistant clinical professor of law at Northwestern University, said, “A study presented in September by the Hurley Medical Center showed that blood lead levels in children under 5 years of age living in Flint zip codes that were supplied by the Flint River water increased dramatically in the year and a half that Flint’s water was sourced from the Flint River. Further, the number of Flint children in those zip codes with dangerously elevated blood levels more than doubled in just that year and a half. Lead is toxic, especially for children.”

Children exposed to lead (let alone drinking it every day) are liable to suffer brain damage, among a host of other problems of ill health, including lower IQ, lower academic achievement, and other impairments. That’s why Flint Mayor Karen Weaver declared a state of emergency about a month ago.

About five years ago, Flint was considered to be in a financial state of emergency. That was in 2011, when the state took budgetary control. Other functions of government remained the same, retaining some semblance of a democracy. All of the water crisis decisions were made by the state, by the governor and his managers of cities like Flint (there are others under similar state control).

The Flint water crisis is about two years old and, in recent weeks, many people have been provided with bottled water, because of the smell, taste, and looks of the water coming out of their taps. Rep. Dan Kildee (D-5 Mich.) was highly critical of the way the water crisis was handled, saying that the financial manager sent to run Flint by Republican Governor Rick Snyder was directed to do just one thing and that was to “cut the budget at any cost.”

At this time, there is no way to know what will happen to the children of Flint and it certainly will be a fight to force the State of Michigan and, possibly, the federal government, to follow them at least through their teenage years, to monitor them and see if the elevated levels of lead that came so quickly into their young bodies did irreparable harm, just because someone in charge was determined to save money.

In retrospect, the city could have waited until the (planned) pipeline to Lake Huron was completed and the people could have been drinking the higher quality water from Detroit. That was not to be, because of the budget monitor set upon the city by Governor Snyder to save money. What it did, however, was cost Flint’s children a price that may only be known in the next decade or two. Flint’s residents are outraged. Many have called for Snyder to resign and some have called for his arrest, whatever the charge, because it was his actions that have caused this disaster, the victims of which have no voice.

Now that the damage is done, officials in the beleaguered city can point to the urgency with which they are attempting to solve the water problem. Strange how (seemingly) fast officialdom can react when they have been caught making destructive decisions. It would have taken only a little cautious analysis before they took the action they took and forced the toxic river water on the people who remain. They didn’t. Rather, they saw a way to save a few bucks and they did it. It’s an old story. Not to excuse the Michigan governor and his agents, but many American cities have similar problems with lead and other contaminants in their drinking water, but none has had such a sharp comeuppance.

Flint has suffered economically over the past generation, because of changes in the world economy and for other reasons. The global restructuring of the automobile industry had a devastating effect on the cities of the Upper Midwest, which depended heavily on the good pay and benefits that auto jobs provided. When that industry went global and plants that seemed like they were going to last for another 50 years closed and downsized, people began to leave the cities, like Detroit and Flint. Many could not leave, because there was no place to go and no money to get there.

According to the U.S. Census, Flint’s population dropped to 99,002 in 2014, from 102,400 in 2010. It is a majority black population, 56.6 percent, to the city’s white residents who total 37.4 percent. Not surprisingly for the ailing city, 41.5 percent of the population lives in poverty. That’s a considerable drop in population in such a short time, but it is likely that a large percentage of those who fled the city, especially since the toxic water crisis, were white.

Why this crisis was allowed to fester for so long, after Snyder and others knew what was happening can only be a matter of speculation at this time. If the city had been majority white, would the poison have been allowed to settle so deeply into the bodies of the children of Flint? Michael Moore, the prizewinning filmmaker and social critic, who also calls Flint his hometown, has demanded that Snyder be arrested, because the governor knew for a year that the water was toxic and only took action when other government agencies took a look and became involved.

Americans may only find out the rationale behind the delay in taking action to provide safe drinking water to the people of Flint if there were actually a trial after the governor’s arrest. Moore may be engaging in hyperbole by calling for Snyder’s arrest, but that’s the only way the people would get a straight answer to the question, “Why?”