RightMichigan.com || Cherry's "strong record" strikes again

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Raise the curtain.

Cherry's "strong record" strikes again

By Nick, Section News
Posted on Mon Jan 19, 2009 at 06:40:20 AM EST
Tags: Cherry, 2010, Granholm-Cherry, layoffs, job loss, unemployment, healthcare, homeless (all tags)

It wasn't even a week ago that John Cherry told the Detroit Free Press that he would be proud to run on the track record he and Governor Jennifer Granholm have cemented over the past six-plus years while offering further the mind boggling quote, "I think she's got a strong record."

Think the man would like to take those words back? I don't often, but I'm tempted to give him the benefit of the doubt on this one. Not sure how anyone at that level of state government "leadership" could pick up the newspaper these days and find anything to be proud of. But what do I know? Maybe he and I just have really different measures of success.

I mean, what is it exactly that John Cherry claims he's proud of and pleased to have tied around his neck as he begins his campaign to become Michigan's next governor?

How about the headline news in the Ivory Tower this weekend that Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Michigan is going to be killing 1,000 Michigan jobs while simultaneously making it significantly more difficult for our state's senior citizens to afford health care.

Facing what it says could be losses of more than $1 billion through 2011, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan said Friday it will cut as many as 1,000 jobs and seek state approval to raise rates on its individual health insurance products.
The average rate hikes to be sought by Blue Cross are 55% for nongroup plans; 32% for Medicare Supplemental, or Medigap, products, and 42% for those with group conversion plans that carry over prior workplace coverage.
About 418,000 Michiganders -- half of them senior citizens -- are covered by those policies.

I'll admit up front that this is little more than my personal opinion... but I wouldn't be particularly proud of that kind of headline. Wouldn't be happy at all that that was happening on my watch. Witnessing a Michigan company (and not a manufacturing dinosaur) take a BILLION dollar loss, raise healthcare rates on senior citizens and kill 1,000 jobs is rough news. Of course, according to John Cherry, well, that's a part of his "strong record."

And Michiganders across the state can only wish and hope and dream that his "strong record" ended there this weekend. Alas.

The Livingston Press and Argus reports that a local third generation company is closing its doors too. A small business started in the 1930s survived seven decades of Democrats and Republicans and wars and recessions and great societies but it won't survive the Granholm-Cherry administration.

Read on...

May & Scofield, which produced electronics and other parts for vehicle interiors, moved to Fowlerville nine years ago and had 50 employees, down from a high of 150.
The Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell says the company, founded in Howell by Scofield's grandfather in 1934, is the fifth auto supplier in the county to shut down in just over a year.

Part of John Cherry's "strong record." Something he's "proud" to run on in 2010.

And if staggering job losses and the death of one family's American dream make him happy he's going to LOVE this... the Detroit News reports this morning on programs reaching out to newly homeless families in the metro area.

The Macomb Homeless Coalition runs the continuum, the county's mechanism for moving the homeless from the streets to permanent, safe housing.
The coalition estimates the county has 1,142 homeless people on its streets any given day, according to its latest homeless census, taken in 2007. That same year, the coalition counted 46 homeless families, up from only one in the 2005 survey.

Note the timing on those heartbreaking numbers. The giant spike in homeless families, from 1 to 46 happened in 2006 and 2007. During 2006 and 2007 the broader economy of the United States was still adding jobs hand over fist. The national recession we're in right now didn't begin until the second quarter of 2008.

While the rest of the nation was still climbing the charts on the way to an eventual 8 million new jobs (since January 2003) Macomb County families were losing literally everything and seeking refuge in the streets at a rate 46 times higher than previous years.

The Democrats' 2010 gubernatorial candidate's response? He calls that a "strong record" and tells us he's "proud" to run on it.

I can think of at least forty-six families just in Macomb County who might not be as pleased with his job performance.

< The Cone Of Silence | Monday in the Sphere, January 19 >

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