Republican Public Health Policy

I’d like to remind the voters (non-voters really) of Maryland of what a good job they did last year by electing Larry Hogan governor. Because Alabama or Maryland, there’s no real difference among Republicans on issues like public health. Everywhere, they like to blame public health problems on the poor. Take Hogan’s Secretary of Housing, Community, and Development. He says that women intentionally expose their children to lead in order to obtain free housing from the state, the filthy leeches! Clearly, the only solution is eviscerating lead paint laws to protect those truly oppressed people in American society, landlords.

Kenneth C. Holt, secretary of Housing, Community and Development, told an audience at the Maryland Association of Counties summer convention here that a mother could just put a lead fishing weight in her child’s mouth, then take the child in for testing and a landlord would be liable for providing the child with housing until the age of 18.

Pressed afterward, Holt said he had no evidence of this happening but said a developer had told him it was possible. “This is an anecdotal story that was described to me as something that could possibly happen,” Holt said.

…

Holt, a Republican who once represented Baltimore County in the House of Delegates, said reviewing lead paint standards was part of a series of initiatives he planned that also include relaxing the state’s building codes and making it easier for people saddled with heavy student debts to buy homes. The secretary appeared on a panel discussing economic development strategies.

As critics protested Holt’s comments about mothers of lead paint victims, he declined through his office to call a reporter Friday afternoon to further explain his remarks. The housing department released a statement saying: “Secretary Holt and the department have the highest standards of safety when it comes to protecting children and Maryland families. The department will do nothing to jeopardize that.”

The highest standard of safety. For landlords’ bank accounts.