September 24, 2010. Skooby figures it out. Just a tad too late, wouldn't you say? Some of us saw this coming a long, long time ago.
Now, we know how rigid Republicans are about following the rules. So they killed the rental car fee, and state tourism officials killed the fall-color-tour Pure Michigan campaign because there’s no moola.
This was pure politics trumping good public policy. Senate GOP folks are more interested in winning back their seats than pouring more money into the economy.
If that is not a dereliction of duty, what the heck is?
It wasn't really about winning their seats, since most of them are termed out anyway. It was about making the Governor and the Democrats take the hit for Mike Bishop's refusal to compromise and find solutions to problems, so it was really about winning power back for the Republicans, period. And to show you how that works, you can check out story after story after story after story in the Michigan media about the cancellation of the fall ad campaign that did NOT point out the fact that it was the Republicans that refused to fund Pure Michigan, just that "the Legislature" made the cut. See how easy it is?
And look, the Senate Republicans did the same thing on other issues too! Imagine that!
When the business community suggested a new tax policy to increase the sales tax and expand it to services, the governor got on board and some economists chimed in, too.
Some of that new money could have been used to erase the state’s mushrooming deficit that is about to be passed on to the next administration.
And the Republicans are complaining the loudest about not fixing the “structural deficit.” But given a chance to side with their friends in business and create a better tax system, they said nope.
As always, they want it both ways. Gripe about the problem, reject any sensible solution to it, and then blame the other party for messing things up.
That, of course, is Pure you-know-what.
Sure is Tim. Tell your friends. We wouldn't want the accusation of "dereliction of duty" to start spreading to other professional types in Lansing, if you get what I'm saying here.
Might want to keep an eye on DC as well. The Bishop Pure Obstruction Playbook is currently being applied in the US Senate, and if Republicans take back the US House, you can guarantee that we will see "pure politics trumping good public policy" on a scale like you wouldn't believe.