Tag: Granholm-Cherry (page 3)

The Flint Journal ran an op-ed with the words "Jennifer Granholm jeopardizes state power system" in that order in the title and that's a pretty big surprise.

Heck, today is Fat Tuesday and after a few of you get three or four paczki in you then YOU are going to be a big person.  Literally.

But all of that pales in comparison to the BIG load of... hypocrisy... playing out in newspapers like the Ivory Tower this morning as the MSM races to bring readers the latest on Governor Granholm's suggestion that she might slap online the names of folks who haven't paid their taxes on time.

In principle, I don't mind the idea at all.  In fact, I think its pretty boss.  If you're breaking the rules and refusing to pay your fair share then a big scarlet "www." (as it were) is the least of your worries.  And the least of ours, too.  

The vast majority of us pay our taxes on time every time.  There are certain services even the staunchest anti-government conservative will admit we need.  If a little web-shame can keep folks from trying to pull one over on Uncle Sam or the state Capitol... or get a delinquent to come clean and pay off his or her tab, mores the better!

Alas, that's not what the Governor is looking for and its not what her proposal targets.  Her proposal is pure, unadulterated class warfare.  It's the politics of personal destruction and the politics of yesterday.  Oh, and its the sort of thing that would give her a pass on her OWN back taxes.

Read on...

Sure, they've been six of the most disastrous years for any one state in economic history but he argues that it's a strong record and something he'll apparently embrace during his bid to secure the state's top executive spot in 2010.

Imagine then that headlines this morning announcing that homeless numbers are expected to spike across the state positively warm John Cherry's heart.  According to the Kalamazoo Gazette, families suddenly without a bread winner are finding themselves on the streets, kids and all.

In 2007, 692 homeless people were recorded, of which 235 were children.

The 2009 numbers won't be known for weeks, but Michelle Schneider, assistant program officer for LISC, said this year's count should be higher than last year.

Think Cherry will use that blurb on his first piece of campaign literature?

No, of course not.  Maybe the second or the third but that first piece that screams "VOTE FOR CHERRY" will undoubtedly want to address his deft handling of the state's financial crisis and the way tax and regulatory policy have sent bills skyrocketing across the state.  He might reserve line or two for today's Detroit News which highlights a newly expected massive hike in water rates for Detroit Water and Sewage customers.  That's 125 communities in South East Michigan.  

Read on...

Ever since John Cherry told the Detroit Free Press that he was proud to run on the record he'd racked up along with Jennifer Granholm in maybe the most catastrophic administrative run in any state government's history, nationwide, I've seen opportunities everywhere.  Not opportunities for economic stimulus or recovery or anything as high minded as that.  Opportunities to highlight the record Cherry defends as "strong."  

That's why I'm seriously considering sending my resume to the Cherry for Governor folks and applying to become the Lieutenant Governor's press secretary for the 2010 campaign cycle.  

Governor Jennifer Granholm has "laid a strong groundwork for the state's future, and he'll be happy to run on the Democratic governor's record," he told the Ivory Tower the week before last.  I take the man at his word.  Now take me at mine... no one in the state of Michigan would be happier over the next two years to point out the Granholm-Cherry administration's record than me.  See?  Perfect fit.  It'd be a match made in fever-dream-heaven.

Let's be honest... here at Right Michigan we've sort of been doing the job these last few years anyways.  Might as well make it official.  I can start today!

And since many interview processes include a skill assessment I'll give the Cherry team a taste of what they can expect right here right now.

Read on...

We enter a new year and a new cycle and all of a sudden records of achievement and failure (especially) are a little less important.

No.  That's not fair.  It isn't always that rotten records aren't important... sometimes they're actively embraced.  But let's start with the former.  Senator Carl Levin told the Kalamazoo Gazette that he plans on voting to approve President Obama's pick for Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner, despite his record as a multiple-year tax evader.  In fact, Levin tells us, he really couldn't care less that the man who'll be helming tax policy couldn't be bothered to pay his own taxes on time.

Michigan's senior senator said he is more concerned about Geithner's close connections to Wall Street insiders than his failure to pay his income taxes...

Geithner initially failed to pay more than $35,000 in 2001 to 2004 income taxes.

See, it was an error, not an intentional tax dodge.  He just screwed up is all.  And that is supposed to be reassuring somehow.  Seriously?  The cat couldn't get his own personal taxes right for three years but he's going to adequately handle the entire nation's taxes during four of the most critical years in the history of the American economy?  

Why don't I feel any better about this?

Frankly, it's just a matter of perspective.  The best way for any of us to get over Levin's legendary partisanship may just be to remind ourselves how much worse the state of the Michigan Democratic Party is back here IN Michigan.  In DC they ignore foibles and failures of their own.  At home in Lansing they actively embrace them.

Read on...

Though the job cuts are spread across the regional bank's operations, many of them are expected to occur in Michigan, which has about 7,000 of Comerica's slightly more than 10,000 workers. Comerica is the state's second-largest bank in terms of deposits...

Comerica, which moved its headquarters from Detroit to Dallas in 2007, expects the job reductions to result in a $35-million annual savings. They come on top of the elimination of 600 positions or 5% of its workforce last year.

Notice by way of reminder, if you will, that amidst Michigan's single state recession of 2007 the bank outsourced its major white collar jobs and operations, not to India or China or Mexico but to freaking Dallas.  And just in case you're not a geography major, Dallas is in Texas, that giant state with all of the cowboys down at the bottom of your map of the United States of America.  

Still tells a potent story about the way the Granholm-Cherry administration has handled Michigan's economy since taking the helm in January 2003.  Tells even more about the bank's perceived odds of a recovery after the Democrats took over the legislature in 2007, too.

But don't worry, the current Democratic governor, her hand picked successor and those very same legislators are still on the job, they still have a plan and they're working it and they're working it and jobs of tomorrow and cool cities and plan and working and plan.

Read on...

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...