The Washington Swamp is filled with self-important people who think that the world revolves on its axis around their agencies and bureaus.

But this article from a union website took the arrogance of the Deep State in Washington to new heights:

I bet you didn’t know that: “without the EPA, we wouldn’t have clean air and water. Contaminated lands and oil spills wouldn’t have been cleaned up. There would have been more illnesses and deaths caused by all kinds of chemicals and toxins such as lead and radon in our homes.”

There’s more. “EPA has been taking care of us,” and without this army of bureaucrats, “many of us we dead.”

Ironically, all of this self-congratulations came out while the EPA and its 17,000(!) employees completely fumbled the football in dealing with the toxic chemical spill in East Palatine, Ohio.

We are not against an EPA, but it is worth noting that as our friends at the Cato Institute have long pointed out, states were cleaning the air and water long before the federal EPA was set up in the early 1970s.

As for the union’s plea for more money, the Congressional Research Service reports that: “The total of EPA FY2022 regular and supplemental appropriations is $23.62 billion, $14.38 billion (155.7%) more than the $9.24 billion in FY2021.”

Raise your hand if your family budget rose by 155% last year.