http://www.deepsaidwhat.com/2011/04/05/dearborn-parentsteachers-to-protest-budget-cuts/#more-4705Morris Goodman, a Dearborn attorney, past president of the Dearborn Democratic Club, a longtime political activist and observer and regular reader of Deepsaidwhat.com sent along this column asking “Did you get what you voted for?”
Goodman says that July 1, 2011 cannot come soon enough because that is when Gov. Snyder will have been in office for six months . . . and a recall can then be started.
His column begins below:
When the polls closed on August 6, 2010 in the Michigan primary election, 34 percent of Republicans voted for the Bill Milliken and Bill Ford endorsed self proclaimed non-ideological nerd Rick Snyder for Governor. Forty-two percent of Democrats voted for the two term moderate Majority leader of the Democratic controlled Michigan House of Representatives Andy Dillon.
How many of those Snyder primary voters thought he would put forward the kind of draconian cost cutting and tax burden shifting agenda he has so far? How many of those Dillon primary voters thought he would not endorse for governor the candidate he lost to, Lansing Mayor Virg Bernero, and later go to work for the Snyder Administration as Treasurer?
In the first week of April, 2011, just seven short months from that portentous primary, Michigan has enacted, or is about to enact, legislation that was not even contemplated under the 12 years of the very conservative reign of Gov. John Engler, most of which he also had Republican majorities in both House of the legislature. Michigan has entered into the unfortunately clichéd, but true, “uncharted waters” of the radical right and these radicals seem to be just getting started.
On the front page of the New York Times on Tuesday March 29 was an article about Governor Snyder’s decision to sign legislation that as of January 1, 2012 reduces the number of weeks of unemployment compensation for newly unemployed workers from 26 weeks to 20. Michigan with one of the nation’s highest rates of unemployment will now have the nation’s lowest number of weeks for state unemployment compensation benefits. Snyder seems to be completely buying the philosophy articulated in the April 2 Wall Street Journal’s lead editorial which says:
“The jobs recovery gained speed in March – not ramming speed, or cruising speed, but let’s call it chugging along speed………
sour note that the percentage of Americans out of work for at least six months increased to 45.5% from 43.9%. The danger here is that the longer these 6.1 million people are out of work, the harder it can be to find it.
“One factor has to be Congress’s decision last year to extend unemployment benefits to 99 weeks, making it easier to hold out for a better job rather than accept one that’s available. This is one more example of false government compassion – like the minimum wage – that harms people in the long run.”
What hogwash. There are at least 5 workers nationally looking for work, more in Michigan, for every job available and a large chunk of those new jobs are at the minimum wage. Do the Snyder voters really believe that the huge number of long term unemployed auto industry workers are shirking jobs because unemployment compensation is available? Do they really believe that the Michigan minimum wage of $7.40 is so high that it is discouraging employers from hiring? I think not.
Moreover do Bill Milliken’s and Bill Ford’s moderate Republican followers and Andy Dillon’s moderate Democratic followers really want, in addition to the decrease in unemployment compensation weeks: (1) the collective bargaining rights of police and firefighters almost completely taken away through the repeal on Public Act 312 and those rights of other state workers severely limited; or (2) pensions taxed like any other income; or (3) giving businesses a $1.8 billion tax break while at the same time essentially cutting the budget of $1.8 billion in “unnecessary spending we can no longer afford; or (4) cutting K-12 funding by $470 per student and lowering aid to Michigan’s universities by 15% or more; or (5) having Emergency Financial Managers very easily appointed with enhanced powers to override the decisions of elected officials and to void collective bargaining agreements. I do not think so.
At the March 30 Dearborn Democratic Club meeting, there was loud and frequent talk of instituting a Recall Campaign against Mr. Snyder and many of his cohorts in the Legislature. I never heard such talk before even during the height of the Engler budget and tax cutting and union bashing years. I believe that Snyder and his Republican colleagues are pursuing an extreme right wing agenda that a significant majority of Michiganders do not want.
Michigan law mandates that a Recall cannot be started against an elected office holder until he has served six months. July 1, 2011 cannot come soon enough for many who thought they were voting for a view of state government that just is not the one that Governor Snyder has.. Be careful what you wish for. Snyder might still be a nerd, but he sure is not the non-ideological nerd his self paid $6 million advertising campaign portrayed him to be.
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