Dick admits that he will give a tax cut to "business" (i.e. the rich) and destroy state government.
DeVos' "seven steps to a turnaround" speech, set for noon Tuesday at Burton Manor in Livonia, appears long on philosophy and short on specifics. He calls for abolishing the "job-killing" Single-Business Tax and replacing it with a "broad-based business tax on profits or gross receipts."
No, a campaign spokesman says, the replacement levy would not fill the $1.9 billion annual hole left in the state budget. And, yes, that means it would be a net tax cut that also would be offset by other "efficiencies and program cuts," but not a tax on services.
Still, a Democratic governor, with her deeply partisan inner circle, isn't the only reason Michigan is in the fix it is. DeVos's fellow Republicans have controlled the state Legislature throughout -- and well before -- Gov. Jennifer Granholm's term, and Republicans have shared her timidity when faced with tough, unpopular choices.
WHAT ELSE would you cut? Funny how they will NEVER answer that question.
Twentieth-century Michigan, with its big companies paying big management and big unions fat paychecks and Cadillac benefits, built a society that a 21st-century Michigan in a competitive world simply cannot afford.
In the late '90s, Detroit's automakers were rolling in the dough, Michigan was leading the nation in job creation and college graduates were staying because good jobs could be had feeding an industry enjoying a brief, SUV-fueled renaissance.
The auto industry likely to emerge from today's restructuring will be smaller and will employ fewer people in a space shared with an increasing number of foreign-owned automakers, suppliers and other industries.
"My message," DeVos says in his prepared remarks, "is simple -- if we do not change, Michigan's best days will remain in our past. What I am talking about is not just tinkering under the hood, tweaking the tax code or revising some regulations. What I am talking about is a complete overhaul of state government."
Dick's "philosophy" is simple. Give the money to the rich- cut the services that help people. So we should elect him, a man who has no experience and no real plan, to completely overhaul the government. Oh my God. This has disaster written all over it.
Dick goes on to talk about spending more money on top of this.
He's talking about rewarding great teachers for great results; spending more on K-12, higher education and skills training; speeding business permitting and rewarding accountability in government -- all of it the political equivalent of Mom and apple pie.
Spending cuts and increases. Neat trick, Dick.
What a big, bad, scary joke this is. I'll let Markos finish this up- he had some words the other day that are very pertinent to the thought of electing more "conservatives"- this applies to Washington, this applies to Michigan and DeVos' "philosophy".
What you are seeing is the failure of right-wing conservatism. The failures since 2000 are not Bush, or Cheney, or incompetence; they are the logical end result of their philosophy of government. When you vote for people who believe government is the problem, this is the government you get. When you vote for people who believe corporations are more important than people, this is the government you get. If you vote for these people, you will get more of the same. It is time to say, "We tried it, and we don't like it." It is time to stop voting for the right-wing Republican agenda, and start voting for progressives who believe in government of all the people, by all the people, and for all the people.
Amen. Haven't we learned our lesson yet?