Governor Two-Penny . . . yes, absolutely.  Nothing against her personally (because I don't know her personally), but that woman is evidently clueless when it comes to an accurate cause-and-effect relationship between bad government policies and a lousy state economy.  And the state's economic track since she took office shows that very clearly.

The remainder of it is willful ignorance (or willful negligence) on the part of the state legislature and the lobbyists therein.

Understand that the lobbyists lose here.  The "stock in trade" of the typical lobbyist is tax favors.  Their job is to look out for their clients' interests by seeing to it that they get special "carve outs" whenever a new tax bill (or, for that matter, any bill that has anything to do with money) comes down the legislative pipeline.  Under the MIFairTax, there are no tax favors to negotiate, so the large part of the reason for the political lobbying industry will cease to exist.  Don't expect them to go down without a fight.

Likewise, many career politicians (especially the statists and moderates on both sides of the aisle) consider it a huge element of job security when they get to do the "photo op" for bringing in a new company and new jobs for their district.  Never you mind that that's not what they're there to do in the first place.  Granted, there a several that get it (especially the ones from Kent County . . . except Dean), and that's because the Michigan Fair Tax Association has been in their ears on a constant basis.  But it shouldn't surprise you that politicians have a problem with giving the people total control of anything.

The real problem, oddly enough, is institutional inertia.  And that applies to us, too.  We've been so conditioned over the past seven generations to accept the current tax system as "just the way things are," that we have a hard time envisioning the fundamental paradigm shift that characterizes the FairTax Initiative.  And if common citizens have a problem wrapping their minds around it (you'd be amazed at how many do), then imagine the added difficulty that the government has with this concept.  Really, fair taxation is just so doggoned simple that people don't get that it isn't complicated.

The trick, if you want to call it that, is education.  The basics of the concept are very easily explained within a paragraph, and the "broad stroke" specifics don't require more than a couple of minutes.  Of course, the way I give presentations tends to encourage questions, so I could be here for awhile once we get things rolling.  (There's a reason that I'm the official "rhetorical heavy lifter" within District 3.)  Once the MFTP is explained and understood, well it's just a little bit of a thrill to watch that "mental light bulb" come on when people actually get it.

Hence the reason that MFTA has been giving presentations statewide all year long (and the reason that I'm writing these essays).  When the 2010 "signature season" rolls around, we want the people to already know what the Michigan FairTax Proposal is, why it's a good idea, why it should be on the ballot, and why it needs to be voted up.