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When "shift the blame" gets old, start playing "pass the buck"By Nick, Section News
If there was one thing I took away from the Governor's State of the State address a few nights ago it was that the woman is completely and utterly tone deaf, unable to hear the fading pulse of state that's been on life support since the moment she first took the oath in 2003.
But if I took two things away from the speech, the second would be that the Gov's fancy new programs each have disaster written all over them. Now, a day or two after delivering the critically panned performance she's back to the drawing board offering even more suggestions the people of Michigan would be better off ignoring. Lets start, though, with the originals and head over to the Ivory Tower which investigates the woman's populist assertion that universities should freeze tuition, lest they incur her unending wrath. Turns out, those kinds of threats really won't do much to help the relatively few Michigan students sticking around after high school.
A short-term freeze, they also note, would not address long-term problems such as rising health care costs that fuel the rising cost of a degree.
"The reality is that tuition freezes are not permanent," said Sandy Baum, a senior economist with the College Board, a national group that manages standardized testing and analyzes issues related to higher education. "If tuition is frozen one year, you're going to have to make up for it two or three years later." In other words, the woman is passing the buck. If you sit down and think about it for a moment, it's a masterful move and makes perfect sense based on her track record. The woman has made a career, literally, out of criticizing John Engler and moves that created the top economy in the United States for much of the 1990s. Somehow every problem she encountered for the first six years in office were THAT man's fault, not hers. It was always HIS administration. HIS policies. HIS legacy. She was just fighting upstream and incapable of overcoming what he'd done. Never mind the tacit admission that one Governor, Engler, was somehow powerful and able enough to create policy that altered the state of the economy for decades while another, Granholm herself, remains entirely devoid of any skill, power or ability to do so much as dent her predecessor's momentum... that's beside the point and far too nuanced for the random political observer. It was HIS fault. That's all that matters. Now, with fewer than two years left before riding off into that Hollywood / Lobbyist sunset that so clearly calls to her, she's attempting to plant legislative landmines that will only be tripped after she leaves office. Try to make things a little less ugly while she's stuck with us and then wait for the next guy to blow himself up on her hidden time bombs. HIS fault, not hers. Read on...
And she's working the same angle on insurance rates. Suggesting that we freeze rates for a year (sound familiar?) so the legislature can enact some sort of mystery legislation giving Detroit drivers a giant break on their rates at the expense of everyone out-state... and don't be confused for a second, any time you hear any one talk about reforming auto insurance in Michigan they're talking about lowering Detroiter's rates and raising the rest of ours... she's effectively throwing up her hands and saying `look at me, I'm nice, but that next guy, look out!'
I wouldn't even have a big deal with that strategy if the "solutions" she was trying weren't so hair-brained and costly. The Associated Press tracked down a little background on the reason for Michigan's ranking as the 15th most expensive state for insurance. And what do you know... it's the government's fault:
Michigan is unique in that it offers unlimited medical coverage for lifetime care that can soar into the millions, but there's a cost to it -- $104 per vehicle this year. Subtract the 2006 unlimited medical assessment and Michigan's average expenditure that year drops to $785, which would have ranked 25th nationally.
"If you want the premiums found in other states, you have to let us sell the products sold in other states," Kuhnmuench said. Lawmakers in both parties have suggested giving motorists the option of purchasing fewer medical benefits. (Former MDP Chairman and current administration insurance hack Butch) Hollowell opposes that idea, given the security unlimited medical provides. The Governor's answer, then, is to dictate to private industry how to run their business and then pass the buck to the next administration. Classy. Aaaand then we move from the ridiculous to the head-slapping crazy. This morning we learn the woman's decided it'd be best if the Mayor of the City of Detroit controlled the Detroit Public Schools. See, DPS has these ugly deficits. But wait, so does the City of Detroit. Well, DPS has criminals and lotharios holding elected office. Hmm, so has the Mayor's office. Yeah, but the Mayor's office is controlled by a Democrat. Nevermind... so is every seat on the DPS board. If the point was to provide Detroit kids the best education, and everyone running the public system in Detroit is either corrupt, incompetent or in jail it would seem to make sense that maybe we'd expand school choice in the city... lift the cap on Charter public schools and let parents and kids have a chance. But that isn't the point. She's more interested in appearing to be doing something while shifting the blame and passing the buck. What was it Skubick's panel said after her speech about shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic?
When "shift the blame" gets old, start playing "pass the buck" | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
When "shift the blame" gets old, start playing "pass the buck" | 2 comments (2 topical, 0 hidden)
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