So predictable.
The usual suspects are saying the usual things when it comes to fixing our budget problems.
The Republicans are Johnny One-Note Wonders, calling for "more cuts", but they still can't figure out what essential services are. The Michigan Chamber of Commerce complains we aren't competitive for business, a claim which has been proven false time and time again. But, they are gunning for no replacement on the SBT, so that kind of tells you where they are coming from. They will be more than happy to raise your gas taxes, though. And the pundits- don't get me started.
Naysayers naying.
Laura Berman calls them out.
The governor called them "naysayers" -- a value-neutral term for a certain kind of Michiganian.
The kind who sat in his (and occasionally her) legislative seat when Jennifer Granholm said, "I will not make cuts that destroy Michigan's ability to compete and win."
Right now, the naysayers are pundits and politicians, Lansing regulars and Republicans -- an impatient group who ganged up on the guv with post-State of the State reproaches.
They sneered at her speech -- all that charisma and inspiring rhetoric -- as too darn perky. Too optimistic.
"Rosy" was another term used- and I call bullshit on all of it. As one who saw many speeches last year- I know when she is being sunshine and lollipops. That wasn't it. That speech was very serious. While she did lay out some grand ideas, for the most part I saw a woman hell-bent on impressing the urgency of our situation on a bunch of people in bad suits who have no worry about paying their bills. Same goes for the "Lansing regulars", the same 'ol talking heads who have very little clue as to what it is like out here in the real world.
So, no, the suspects weren't listening. Not at all.
The Detroit News paints the imagery of death, quite literally, in their editorial this morning. Terms like "suck the life out of Michigan", and, "another nail in the state's coffin" conjure up the ever-present six feet under doom and gloom the News so loves to peddle. Perhaps we should all go jump off the bridge like the GM robot rather than pay a whopping $65 bucks a year to help the state.
Strangely enough, Finley is being awful quiet. Both he and Manny are pointing at flip-flop Romney as the ideal leadership. Um, OK. You do that. Maybe Finely is saving it up for Sunday. Gotta watch him, he will bite hard when the time is right.
The News did publish an opposing viewpoint that explained the crisis in education and argued that a tax on services is the logical way to go. That person, of course, does not work for the Detroit News, but at least another voice was heard. It's a start.
You knew someone would reach for 1983, and I'm not too surprised to see that someone was Dawson Bell. The word "recall" is being whispered in some quarters, shouted in some others, and who really gives a damn if people like the term-limited, suddenly out of work Drolet wants to waste their time (and make a buck too) while riling up the flat-earthers. Go for it. They couldn't do it to Blanchard, they won't do it to Granholm. But Dawson will be sure and bring it to mind for us and perhaps scare some of these freshmen legislators.
Yawn. I'm old enough to remember 1983. Times were hard. We survived. And the thing that pisses me off the most is that we didn't learn our lesson then and now we get to do this all over again. We needed Granholm 25 years ago.
Will we listen now? Well, the feedback from the rabble on various forums so far seems to indicate that this might go down easier than expected. People are grumpy, to be sure, but there is a certain percentage that sees the wisdom in paying for quality- let's hope they become the prevailing attitude, in spite of the usual suspects spouting the usual lines.
Berman sums it up well.
It's a logical way to acknowledge the shift in the state's economy, from a producer of goods to a creator of services.
Granholm's critics complain that she failed to project enough sense of crisis -- to adequately convey the kinds of trauma that await the state if the Single Business Tax is not addressed, if the $3.5 billion tax shortfall is not remedied.
Fellas, we get it.
In Michigan, we don't live in denial. We live in a state of bated breath -- waiting for the next $12 billion Ford loss, the next Pfizer to spirit away 2,400 jobs.
It's not delusional to expect a leader to have vision, to imagine the state competing in the 21st century, because its residents value education, investment in technology and good government.
Remind me, please, of the great American states that get by without picking up trash, paving roads, educating children, without building or health care or helping the poor.
And say "nay" to the Granholm's vision -- the commitment to schools, to a higher-tech and to people -- at your peril. Because this state will not survive by starving itself.
Amen.
And stop being so predictable, you are boring me to death here.
Perhaps it's time for a "Pundit Tax"- use a stale talking point or a proven false claim and you pay. Big time. Heck, we could make up the deficit on the Detroit News alone.