Remember how Bishop walked out of budget talks, took all those vacations, lied about deals that were made, wouldn't take votes until the end of August, called the governor names, made a fool out of Dillon, insisted on an "all cuts" budget, insisted on a continuation budget in September so they could keep playing this game, and generally held Michigan hostage right up until the point that they shut down the government, screwed up the service taxes, which in turn led to the inevitable repeal of those and the installment now-dreaded MBT surcharge instead? Remember that?
And that is the short version. Follow the link above for the entire story of how the governor had to kick the Legislature in the ass all year long to get their job done, how the Democrats dithered because they were afraid of the inevitable tax vote, and how Bishop stomped his feet, held his breath until he turned blue, lied, denied, stalled as much as he could, and wasted an entire year of the taxpayer's time as he played his obstruction games.
Some of us remember it well. Heck, some of us were moved to start a blog over it.
In Friday's MIRS, Bishop was asked about how this year's budget issue compares to what happened in 2007. Here is what he said:
"Here's the difference," Bishop said. "In 2007 I had four or five members of my caucus who came to me well ahead of time and told me they'd do what ever was needed to prevent a shutdown. So, I knew, at the end of the day, the votes would be there to go along with the Governor.Making the whole shutdown of government and the subsequent MBT surcharge totally unnecessary.
Thanks, Mike. Thanks a lot. Instead of doing the right thing, which you knew you had the votes for "well ahead of time", you screwed us all over.
Just a little something to keep in mind as this year's budget negotiations unfold.