Tag: Upton (page 2)

Everyone's attention is rightly focused on Michigan's big Presidential Primary today but I figured this would be as good a day as any to chime back in here at RightMichigan with some other important news that is flying way under the traditional media's radar.

Time doesn't stand still during the primaries.

A Republican, Rick Snyder, is the father of the MEDC.  It was his baby, and lest anyone forget, it was created under the Republican Engler administration.  The MEDC, which has yet to produce a model that definitively demonstrates taking taxpayer funds, then giving those funds to hand picked "winners" produces net economic growth in our state.  The MEDC which essentially could be called a taxpayer funded venture capital scam.

The MEDC's MEGA, The state of Michigan through Tax Breaks, and the DOE,  which gave us that "success story" A123 systems.:

"When A123 Systems announced it was opening its lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Livonia in September 2010, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm wrote about it on the Huffington Post calling it "a Recovery Act success story."

But there have been troubles for A123 Systems in the 17 months since then despite a lot of state and federal aid to prop it up.

The state of Michigan gave it a $100 million MEGA tax credit that is contingent on the company creating 300 jobs by the end of 2016. A123 Systems also received another $41 million in tax breaks and subsidies from the state. The Department of Energy awarded A123 Systems a $249.1 million grant.

But the company has not been able to meet its own projections. For instance, on March 28, 2011 in an SEC filing, the company projected total revenue between $210 million to $225 million for 2011. Its latest report shows they had just $118 million of total revenue through the first three quarters of 2011 and reported a net loss of $172 million."

Yeah, that's a winner.

In fact doing so well, taxpayers should be happy to know that the top brass in the company thanks them for providing a generous raise.

An appropriations bill that does not specifically deny USDA funding to conduct inspections of horsemeat for human consumption could allow horse processing to resume in the U.S. The Fiscal Year 2012 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2112), or the so-called "Mini-bus Bill," establishes 2012 budgets for the Department of Agriculture and several other federal departments through September 2012.

Prior to 2005 USDA personnel carried out horsemeat food safety inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2006 Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections. USDA personnel continued to conduct those inspections on a fee-for-service basis until 2007 when a federal court judge ruled against the arrangement. The combination of the funding prohibition and the court decision resulted in the decline of the horse processing industry in the U.S.

Language stripping the USDA of horsemeat inspection funding did not appear in the original fiscal 2012 House Agricultural Appropriations bill when it was introduced earlier this year. However, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment prohibiting the use of federal dollars to fund USDA horsemeat inspections. No such provision was contained in the Senate's version of the Appropriations bill.

After passage in their respective legislative houses, both the House and Senate bills were referred to a conference committee. The resulting consolidated bill did not contain the defunding language. The committee recommended the bill for passage, then forwarded to the full House and Senate for vote. On Nov. 17 the full House passed H.R. 2112 by 298-121 vote. The Senate also passed the bill by a 70 to 30 vote. President Barak Obama signed the bill into law on Nov. 18. As a result, the USDA could conduct horsemeat inspections at least until September 2012.

Michigan US Reps. Benishek, Camp, Clarke, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters, Rogers, and Upton voted YES.  Both Michigan US Sens. Stabenow and Levin voted YES too.

It was actually Jason's column last week about that stupid gold coin idea being floated around the Supercommittee that put me over the edge.  "What other stupid ideas is the supercommittee considering," I wondered, and so I did a little digging and what I found was enough to finally push me over the edge from lurker to genuine participant.  

I actually want to make the argument that if it is serious about spending cuts, the supercommittee should SAVE a certain spending item--Medicare Part D--that a few lazy mathematicians and high school economics class dropouts want to cut.  Hear me out.

Should it hang until the next election is over? Should we update with fresh scarlet letters from even more recent miserable failures of those who are hanging patiently for all this time? Should we offer a positive spin on their recent accomplishments and then sigh, noting how they really screwed up before, and then point again to the left?

While waiting for some discussion on this, it should be noted that our concern about the debt ceiling being increased has been vindicated.  We were right, and those guys on the left were not. The trillions they added to the burden our children must carry, cannot be voted away as easily as their tenure in congress.  Experience DOES account for something, but it is not an excuse for repeatedly ducking responsibility, and they are indeed responsible for that fact.

Good men who screw up need to admit and own up to it, and offer their mistakes as lessons.  Personally, I see genuine contrition as a character building exercise.

If you are from Michigan, have a desire to meet a lot of new people and serve your country, NOW is the time.  A few hard workers with soul are needed in the following districts ... uh  well ALL of the following districts except Congressional District #3 which is occupied by Justin Amash:

"The Budget Control Act trades $21 billion in cuts next year for a debt ceiling increase of $2.1 trillion. That's one penny in cuts for each dollar of new debt. The bill does not seriously address the drivers of the federal government's fiscal crisis. It does not improve entitlement programs.

"It does not include a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution. I cannot in good conscience vote for so little reform when so much is at stake.

Again, the Michigan Republican delegation sans one, failed to perform its duty on the most important vote of their lifetimes.  They missed an opportunity to stand for a permanence of fiscal prudence.

MICHIGAN DELEGATION VOTE The complete list here

Democrats
Clarke, N; Conyers, N; Dingell, Y; Kildee, Y; Levin, Y; Peters, N.

Republicans
Amash, N; Benishek, Y; Camp, Y; Huizenga, Y; McCotter, Y; Miller, Y; Rogers, Y; Upton, Y; Walberg, Y.

As for those Democrats who voted no, they wanted even more from Boehner.  However, this president will take whatever rope he has been given and run with it.

Start with Jack McHugh of the Mackinac Center, who thinks the DRIC discussion isn't one to embrace with Four Reasons Why the Tea Party Should Ignore Detroit Bridge Controversy

At the Bottoms Up Blog, there is a Tea Party Report from Oceana County's Sunday gathering.  Also a report and pictures from Saturday's affair in Lansing

K-12 School funding suffering at the hands of Snyder?  To give to 'higher education"? A Conservative Teacher thinks so.

Over at The Rougblog, the motor city described as a city governed by the delusional lives in a state of delusion

Traverse City Schools move a meeting to a never used time to avoid public input and objection. Bill at TCFamily.org thinks so as the LBGT agenda moves forward in Northern Michigan.

And if you didn't see the post over at MTTM, a Seriously Condescending Upton Man gets all smart alecky with a constituent.

On December 16, the FERC Chairman announced new rules that would socialize the cost of transmission lines across 13 states in the Midwest, including our own.

That region-wide pricing scheme, according to a study commissioned by utility companies, will force Michigan to pay about 20% of as much as $20 billion in new high-voltage transmission lines--though Michigan businesses and homeowners will get little benefit. Thanks to FERC's new tariff, nearly everything in Michigan--from cars and trucks to Frosted Flakes--will be more expensive to make."