The news is that zebra mussels have arrived in Texas. They were probably transferred into the Trinity River basin by boaters who failed to clean their hulls. It arrived in the US courtesy of ships who failed to clean their ballast water. The cost of dealing with these mussels will run into the hundreds of millions.

Their arrival in the US and now in Texas can be attributed to the lack of government inspectors. We don’t want to pay the taxes necessary to keep our lakes and rivers clean so we will end up paying vastly, vastly more in our water bills in years to come. And, as has already happened, run short of water because of clogged pipes that we will probably refuse to pay taxes to clean until the job becomes much, much more expensive. Such are the “savings” that the Tea Party promises us.