The Granholm Stimulus, cost--$2 billion dollars.  And what did it get us, nothing but an unemployment rate above 14 percent.   So I would call that a waste of taxpayer money.  So Gary is that an example of you cutting the spending?

 The Michigan Business Tax, cost-- $1.3 billion in new taxes.  Result, income tax went to 11.5 percent and added a 6 percent sales tax.  This new tax of yours burdened the middle class and forced businesses to flee the state.  And with the businesses went the jobs.  According the bureau of labor statics unemployment went to 14.2 percent.   But you said "it was the right thing to do."[1]  Looks like you are really serious about cutting spending.

 And the coup de grace, your support for Obamacare.  The law that takes $716 billion out of Medicare and according to a University of Minnesota[2] study it takes $2 billion directly out of Michigan's first district.  Let's see that's going to be a lot more hospital's are going to go bankrupt like Cheboygan Memorial. These rural hospitals already barely survive and if they close people are going to have to drive hundreds of miles to the closest big city for care.  Let's not forget that the law also raises the cost of care, "the Kaiser Family Foundation released its annual Employer Health Benefits Survey showing that average family health insurance premiums have gone up by more than $2,500 ($2,730 to be exact)."[3]  So not only does this law not cut cost but it also cuts access to care, but as you said in the Manistee News Advocate "It's the law and we need to move forward with it."[4]

 Ok, so I get that McDowell is trying to distance himself from the big spending Democratic party, but saying he will cut spending is just a lie and we know it, the proof is in the pudding.

 1] Zachary Gorchow and Tina Lam, "Close To A Deal," Detroit Free Press, Sept. 30, 2007

[2] http://www.carlsonschool.umn.edu/medical-industry-leadership-institute/publications/documents/Bookan dRamletpaperonMedicare.pdf

[3] Editorials, "Obamacare isn't reducing health care costs," The Washignton Examiner, Sept. 25, 2012