Elections

Cronyism, Democrats, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Part Time Legislature, Republicans, Taxes

10 Years Later

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The 'temporary' tax hike is still with us.

It didn’t go away.

Today marks the 10-year anniversary of the signing of Jennifer Granholm’s income tax hike in October 2007.  Liars lie, and we have had our share over the years. On whether a particular democrat would sign on to such a drastic measure as reducing the net income of every single Michiganian?

Which is why it may have been encouraging for job makers and Michigan families when Bieda got the nod. After all, just last fall while campaigning for reelection he told the Detroit News that he was not out to raise taxes on Michigan businesses.

Q: There’s growing talk in Lansing about placing a sales tax on services that are now exempt. Would you support that approach?

A: Generally speaking, I think a tax on services, with perhaps some very limited exceptions, is something that I do not support.

One of a majority signing on to the temporary tax.

It was temporary. It was supposed to be rolled back.  Given GOP has had control of all branches of the state since 2010, and how we have been sold a bill of goods on the (NEW) gas tax, who is it that really needs a kick in the ‘ass?’

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Island Quick Notes

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A quick heads up on this weekend's Mackinac Island activities.

Decompressing from the Michigan Republican Party’s Mackinac Island leadership conference.

“Together We Rise” was this year’s event theme, and the invited speakers were phenomenal. Speaking over the weekend to the Michigan Republicans was Governor Matt Bevin of Kentucky, Governor Eric Greitens of Missouri, Former U.S. Representative Jason Chaffetz of Utah, and U.S. House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy.

The Grand Hotel on the island was the setting for this year’s event (as well as all before), with several panels and opportunities to socialize.

Coming away from the conference a few questions remain on what we might see on a couple of major races.   As yet (unless I missed something), lt Governor Brian Calley has not yet declared his candidacy for Governor, and the lack of organizational element present on the island suggests he probably will not.  Likewise the question of whether the US Senate race will also include U.S. representative Fred Upton is unanswered.

the latter item may well have been answered with the new design of his political paraphernalia, showing no seat designation, and including the state as a whole, instead of a district.  Upton had people on the ground and his own rally, something not usually seen for a simple win congressional re-election campaign.

I have over a thousand pictures to process, and will get back to this as soon as I can.

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Conservative News, Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Republicans

The Good The Bad & The Other

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Expected Republican candidates for governor reviewed.

The Michigan Republican field can be quite interesting sometimes.

As many might already realize, a Democrat candidate could be a criminally challenged former State Representative, and still get the full (and active) support from the party of the left in a bid for major office. The bland but nevertheless regressive nature of the left allows even the most obscene stupidity in it’s ranks.  No special prerequisites for candidates other than kill babies, deny God, and let little boys be little girls if they want.

Republican contenders must have their own specific characteristics and features.  No such amorphous qualities are allowed to exist on the right (as they do in the left) to win over all factions of the GOP brand. Below is a list of the expected and declared Republican candidates for governor, and my own estimation of their specific advantage and disadvantages in securing maximum support from GOP supporters and grassroots.  They may or may not be in the order suggested by the title of this piece.

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Conservative News, Elections, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Philosophy, Republicans

We Could Be So Lucky?

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Hey Brian Calley, I double dawg dare ya!

Next to Rick Snyder, John Kasich is about as crappy a GOP governor as they come.

Swamp dwelling, crony, big government.  But enough about Mr Snyder, as he will be soon relegated to the back pages of the lousy Michigan RINO politicians catalogue.

I suppose however, I could expound upon the fact he led us exactly where Ohio’s Governor Kasich Did. And in contrast, other state leaders understood what a raw deal Obamacare was, and refused to play in the healthcare toilet with the former president.

Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal Was one of them. Unafraid to opine, he clearly presented medicaid expansion for what it was, a dependency scam that leadership failures like Kasich and Snyder embraced.

But speaking of Ohio’s governor, his protege is about to embarrass him further than he has already with his pitiful presidential bid.  The loser is going to be shown by his Lt. Governor how good government is done. The student becomes the master.

Republican Lt. Gov. Mary Taylor said Monday she would end the Medicaid expansion in Ohio if she is elected governor – a clean break from the man she has served alongside for the last seven years, Gov. John Kasich.   …

“Medicaid expansion is fiscally unsustainable and will be ended under a Taylor administration,” Taylor said. “I believe that we must identify new, innovative, market-based reforms to address the issues Medicaid currently addresses today. I want to return Medicaid to its original mission of serving the people who need it while incentivizing work and ensuring opportunities for long-term success for those who are able.”

Don’t we all love happy storybook endings?

Of course, what can we say about the guy who was one changed vote away from having to cast the tie breaking vote of HB4717?  Or the eight who really never had a clue which goal line was their own.

Anyhow, we wish the Lt. Grasshopper of Ohio the best in her gubernatorial bid, and thank her for her willingness to get out in front with some much needed political jujitsu.

 

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Elections, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Bow Tie Bad Ass?

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Former Michigan Supreme Court chief hits the ground running.

Bob Young knows how bad Debbie Stabenow’s performance has been.

He knows she is a tool of the crazy left who [just prior] to each election cycle plays a little more accessible to the normals and puts on a conservative face.  H eknows how bad her policies have been for Michigan and the nation.

I suppose anyone with an IQ above room temperature would know these things as well.

Of course, until Kid Rock actually files and demonstrates that he is a serious candidate, Young is the easy favorite.  Others who have entertained the idea of occupying the seat that the meat puppet now enjoys are now looking at more attainable goals.

 

 

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All the Other Stuff, Conservative News, Elections, Liberty, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Opinion, Philosophy, Republicans

Radicals vs. republicans (and the radicals are winning by a long shot).

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I don’t know what has been more infuriating this week; watching the one-sided coverage on what unfolded in Charlottesville last week or watching what passes for “leadership” in the republican party seeing who can get away from President Trump the fastest?

The sad part here is that I can easily see what happened last week spread to Michigan much sooner than people think.

{More after the fold}

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Cronyism, Democrats, Detroit, Elections, Government Incompetence, Michigan, Michigan Politics, Republicans

Why Riot?

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What causes a riot in urban America?

The news media, social scientists, and political scientists are eager to offer up the usual stale left wing bromides on urban riots, but at best those bromides are based upon a lot of anecdotes rather than hard data. The plural of anecdote is not data. The disingenuousness of their bromides arises from the clash of facts with their committed leftist politics.  Economists were far less political, at least 25 years ago.

A pair of economists working under the aegis of the National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) applied linear regression computation modeling to various community statistics from a broad range of cities to determine which underlying issues cause riots and, further, to determine their intensity. Their results are a real eye opener and run contrary to the drivel being peddled by the media and academics on this 50th anniversary of the Detroit riots.

The National Bureau of Economic Research is a private nonprofit research organization which distributes its work product to financial officials and the public around the world. NBER is best known as the official arbiter of the start and end dates of economic recessions in the United States, a not uncontroversial subject. Its economists have run the gamut from the good (Milton Friedman, Wassily Leontief), to the bad (Austan Goolsbee), to the ugly (Paul Krugman). As a fun side note, it is comforting to know that an economists’ organization as august as NBER can lose money on their financial portfolio. No crony capitalists there!

The NBER divides its research into 20 programs; one of which is ‘Labor Studies’. Denise DiPasquale and Edward L. Glaeser produced NBER Working Paper 5456, The L.A. Riot and the Economics of Urban Unrest on behalf of the NBER Labor Studies Program. This paper was written after the Los Angeles riots of 1992, but its research reaches back into the 1960’s and across the world to construct its data base.

The DiPasquale/Glaeser study has two major components: a cross-national study which covers urban rioting around the world (including the U.S.), and a cross-city study which covers urban rioting across just the U.S. They assembled data sets on a large number of cities which included dependent variables representing the frequency of riots and the intensity of riots, along with many independent variables suggested by previous studies as being responsible for the frequency and intensity of those riots – poverty, unemployment, ethnic composition, and so on.

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