I see your thinking, but you need to think like a repetitive doubting thomas to come close to the minds of many defeated people groups in this country, or liberals.
You do some thing good for one city they will say “why them, why not mine?”
And for those in the city that gets helped, they likely will soon forget and just be pushing for the next help/hand out.
they need to change their thinking/perspective and that only happens by God and by facing their wrong thinking (usually real bad problem(s) and having to work their own way out of it)
Any thing else will just be a short lived “change” of heart.
I don’t disagree with your general philosophy. The federal government should not come to the aid of every municipality that screws up. Pension fund underfunded? Tough shut. Should have planned ahead. Bridge out? Find another way there. Fine.
In this instance of Flint, though, we are talking about drinking water. A necessity. This is a real chance to show off Trump’s project management skills, heal the racial divide caused by the Liberals, and help keep Michigan a red state.