You propose a spending bill that would guarantee every school kid ….
… an IPOD:
We have come to the conclusion that the crisis Michigan faces is not a shortage of revenue, but an excess of idiocy. Facing a budget deficit that has passed the $1 billion mark, House Democrats Thursday offered a spending plan that would buy a MP3 player or iPod for every school child in Michigan.
No cost estimate was attached to their hare-brained idea to “invest” in education. Details, we are promised, will follow.
The Democrats, led by their increasingly erratic speaker Andy Dillon of Redford Township, also pledge $100 million to make better downtowns.
Their plan goes beyond cluelessness. Democrats are either entirely indifferent to the idea that extreme hard times demand extreme belt tightening, or they are bone stupid. We lean toward the latter.
We say that because the House plan also keeps alive, again without specifics, the promise of tax hikes.
The range of options, according to Rep. Steve Tobocman, D-Detroit, includes raising the income tax, levying a 6 percent tax on some services, and taxing junk food and soda.
We wonder how financially strained Michigan residents will feel about paying higher taxes to buy someone else’s kid an iPod.
That they would include such frivolity in a crisis budget plan indicates how tough it will be to bring real spending reform to Michigan.
Senate Republicans issued a plan a week ago that eliminates the deficit with hard spending cuts. Now their leader, Mike Bishop of Rochester Hills, is sounding wobbly, suggesting he might compromise on a tax hike.
We hope Bishop is reading the polls that say three-quarters of Michigan residents oppose higher taxes.
There are few things in the House budget outline from which to forge a compromise.
For example, Dillon says he would shift the burden of business taxes to companies that operate in Michigan, but don’t have a facility here. The certain outcome of that plan is to drive even more businesses out of Michigan.
That makes sense, right? Michigan Democrats won’t mind projecting even more of an unfriendly business image than they already do, as long as every kid has an IPOD.
A few years ago, this same governor used taxpayers’ money to give a laptop computer to every teacher in Michigan. No one has yet been able to tell me what happened to those computers. As far as I have been able to determine, no controls whatsoever were placed on them. In short, no one is accountable for them. How many broke down and are unusable? How many were stolen? How many were simply taken by teachers who took new jobs in different districts? No one knows!
“For the children” was a ploy used by the Clintons for everything under the sun. This ploy is just as bad, only moreso since Michigan’s unemployment hovers around 7% now.
Maybe Michigan taxpayers will wise up and recall a few politicians who support the governor’s latest sop to the Michigan Education Association union.
As the saying goes, “Will the last one out of Michiugan turn out the lights, please?”
Comment by Bachbone @ 4/6/2007 - 8:41 pm
Are Michigan Democrats being tricked by someone to kill off Michigan business?
Comment by stackja @ 4/6/2007 - 9:17 pm
Does this mean Oprah was right? s/
Comment by Ali @ 4/6/2007 - 9:52 pm
Apologies for misremembering when those MI laptops were provided to teachers. It was just before GOP Governor Engler left office! Which makes it even more egregious! Conservative politicians ought to know better, but obviously don’t always.
The MP3 matter by the current Democrat governor still smells to high heaven. She was schooled in the Wayne County (DEEtroit) politlcal methods of operating, so thinks like the typical liberal: Throw money at a problem and it will eventually go away. If it doesn’t, you haven’t thrown enough money at it, so raise taxes and keep pitching.
Comment by Bachbone @ 4/7/2007 - 7:21 am
Seems to me that the only thing the dominant MI politicians are good at is driving business and jobs away.
Comment by Tango @ 4/7/2007 - 9:25 am
Me thinks that iPods in MI are going to be very cheap. Half of those kids are going to sell them to the nearest place that will give them money. LOL You might even have people standing outside the school offering cash the day they are passed out. It is time for some common sense in politics. It is time for some common sense in the electorate. - Lorica
Comment by Lorica @ 4/7/2007 - 11:47 pm