Kobach watches Biden State of the Union, sees the real villain: replacing lead pipes | Opinion
Please, won’t somebody think of the poor lead pipes?
During his spirited, unapologetic State of the Union address Thursday night, President Joe Biden went down the list of the many accomplishments made possible by the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure package he shepherded through Congress in 2021. One big win he cited: “Removing poisonous lead pipes so every child can drink clean water without risk of getting brain damage.“
That’s pretty much an unassailable Good Thing. Kansas Attorney General Kris Kobach apparently heard it and thought, “Gotcha!”
“Biden wants to replace lead pipes,” he posted on X, formerly Twitter. “He failed to mention that the unfunded mandate sets an almost impossible timeline, will cost billions, infringe on the rights of the States and their residents — all for benefits that may be entirely speculative.”
“Speculative”? Really?
First of all, the president wasn’t announcing a new project. The Environmental Protection Agency has long put universal lead water line replacement near the top of its wish list, and the infrastructure bill provided money to speed up that initiative, as outlined in the White House’s 2021 Lead Pipe and Paint Action Plan. Early last year, the EPA announced it was accelerating efforts to make our water supply system 100% lead free, as soon as possible.
Because we’ve known for a long time that lead is super toxic. Kids are most vulnerable to the hazardous chemical element, which was once thought as benign as aluminum. Exposure, especially during childhood, can lead to a number of problems, including major damage to the brain and nervous system, which can cause behavior and learning impairment, developmental delay and a measurable decrease in intelligence.
This is not a bunch of pointy-head liberal finger-wagging. It’s well documented, irrefutable science. There’s a reason we banned leaded gasoline in 1996.
Lead has a terrible human cost. It used to be an ingredient not just in gas, but in paint, ceramics, glassware, cosmetics, jewelry and even toys. A study in 2022 concluded that coming into regular contact with the metal in so many household items for so long has reduced the IQ of about half the U.S. population — an average of 2.6 points per person.
Getting rid of this public health scourge is hardly beyond our abilities. Haven’t we always said there’s nothing the United States can’t accomplish? Potable drinking water for all Americans in 2024 doesn’t seem like an impossible dream to me.
Back to Kobach. It’s not as if there’s some wave of pro-lead populism for the AG to ride. A solid 7 in 10 Americans classify those dangerous pipes as a “crisis” or “serious problem,” and 9 in 10 want them gone — on a short timetable.
For years, internet jokesters have chalked up older folks’ sometimes bizarre behavior to the too-heavy levels of lead they were exposed to growing up in the mid-20th century. “Theory: Boomers are the way they are in large part due to lead poisoning when they were young,” reads one typical post on the news and message board website Reddit.
There’s actually evidence of more than a little bit of fact there. I’m not going to take a cheap shot at non-boomer Kobach along those lines. Still, I have to ask: When did modern “conservative” contrarianism devolve to the point where the Republican occupant of one of the most important and influential offices in Kansas questions the wisdom of fighting lead poisoning — and thinks it’s a winning political message?
But he floated that balloon. Guess we’ll see what it’s made of, and where it lands.
This story was originally published March 8, 2024 at 8:03 AM.
