Pat Roberts' Shameless "Big Government" Pandering

Nobody wants big government's help: Isn't that the mantra of the Republicans and their supporters? We don't need your stinking socialized medicine! We don't want guvmint controlling our lives with its regulations and pointy headed bureaucrats! We want our freedoms! Except of course, when they do want something from the Feds, and they want it now, because the free market (in this case the mining industry) screwed them over big time. From the red, red state of Kansas:

Residents of Treece will be tested for lead poisoning next week, in response to concerns expressed to high-level federal officials who recently visited the contaminated southeast Kansas community. [...]

A once-prosperous mining town, Treece has dwindled to about 100 people since the ore petered out in the early 1970s.

A century of mineral extraction left the community surrounded by hundreds of acres covered with mammoth piles of lead- and zinc-contaminated waste known as chat.

Miners tunneled beneath the city and the landscape is dotted with abandoned shafts, sinkholes and cave-ins that have filled with contaminated water.

Unable to sell their homes, residents have been calling for the federal government to buy them out so they can move away from the environmental hazards.

Yeah, buy out their homes. They'll still probably vote for loons like deeply conservative Senator Pat Roberts who threatened to shut down the Senate this month, and who has been pushing the lies that the Democrat's health care would lead to rationing, prevent you from seeing the doctor you want, and restrict the benefits you already get (presumably a reference to that socialized program the federal government runs called Medicare). A man who voted no on every bill to deal with global warming even though a new study strongly suggests his state will be among one of the hardest hit by climate change. A man who voted to exclude coal, oil and gas smokestacks from regulations on mercury emissions. A man rated 0% on environmental issues by the League of Conservation Voters. A member of the Republican majority in Congress which supported the Bush administration's deep budget cuts in funding for the EPA.

Yet, guess who was the first in line to demand help from the Federal government in the form of the EPA for the town of Treece, and who will take all the credit for this lead testing program? Yep, that's who, all right:

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kansas, had been pressing EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson to visit Treece. She sent three top aides to assess the situation Aug. 20. [...]

Roberts aide Sarah Little said the senator is pleased with the quick response to the residents' request for environmental testing.