Top Stories

The Michigan Messenger going forward

By Staff Report | 11.16.11

I am writing today to announce the closure of the Michigan Messenger. After four years of operation in Michigan, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news into a single site, The American Independent at Americanindependent.com. This is part of a shift in strategy, towards new forms [...]

Colorado-based abstinence program provided false and misleading information to Michigan students

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.16.11

An abstinence-only presentation provided to numerous school districts in Calhoun and Eaton Counties in October of this year provided false and misleading information to students about HIV, experts allege.

Class action lawsuit filed against MERS over unpaid taxes

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By Todd A. Heywood | 11.15.11

Two county registers of deeds filed a class action lawsuit Monday on behalf of Michigan’s 83 counties alleging that the Mortgage Electronic Registration Services owes millions of dollars in property title transfer taxes.

Schuette fights important mercury regulations

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By Eartha Jane Melzer | 11.14.11

Despite evidence of the impact of mercury on children and public health, Michigan Attorney General Bill Schuette last month joined with 24 other state attorneys general in filing a lawsuit to scuttle new EPA regulations that would reduce mercury emissions from power plants.

GOP attacks labor in alternative auto bailout plan

By Mike Lillis | 12.10.08 | 4:36 pm

Saying the Democrats’ Detroit bailout plan “guarantees failure at taxpayer expense,” House Republicans on Wednesday introduced an alternative blueprint asking union workers to take a pay cut and give up benefits.

The current powers that be — both in Washington and Detroit — can’t be trusted to fix a problem they created, the Republicans say. From the statement out of Rep. John Boehner’s (R-Ohio) office:

The only thing crazier than trusting the same management and union officials who got the Big Three into this mess to get them out is trusting a bunch of Washington politicians and bureaucrats — the very same people who ran up a $455 billion deficit last year.

What the Republicans fail to mention is that they are “the very same people” referred to here. Indeed, when the GOP took control of Congress in 1994, the federal debt was roughly $4.7 trillion. Now it stands above $10 trillion — with nearly $3 trillion of the new debt amassed between 2000 and 2006, when Republicans controlled the White House and both chambers of Congress. (Another $1.5 trillion has arrived in the last two years under the Democratic-led Congress.)

Funny that no one ever forced a pay cut on these lawmakers for reckless management. In fact, Congress has given itself a pay raise nearly every year this decade.

Meritocracy, indeed.

(Mike Lillis covers Congress for Michigan Messenger’s sister site, The Washington Independent.)

Comments

  • Michael_Heath

    Given the new incremental government expenditures that would occur if GM went down (which would take Ford with it); and given that no one can predict how long or deep this recession and credit crisis will last; the GOP needs to start thinking of the auto bailout request as a part of the economic stimulus package.

    If they let them go down, there will be much higher gov't expenditures in the short-term than the initial bail-out amount. Keeping them running during a recession lessens the need for government to subsidize more unemployed workers into the next growth cycle. Looking at it as part of a stimulus package rather than a bail-out; $34 billion plus a potential additional jolt or two is money well-spent in terms of keeping up to 3 million workers employed and much easier than creating new jobs.

    A savvy economist will also consider the money multiplier affect, and putting these funds into a mature private supply chain as far upstream as the Big 3 are will have optimal multiplier and velocity effects on economic growth relative to competing state infrastructure investments whose multiplier affects have never had the impact or speed of private investment.

    The problem is that most of the GOP Congress-people who are able to think like this are no more, the party has been taken over by a bunch of populists who couldn't pass an Econ 200 class if their life depended on it (with the exception of a few like Judd Gregg).

  • Michael_Heath

    Given the new incremental government expenditures that would occur if GM went down (which would take Ford with it); and given that no one can predict how long or deep this recession and credit crisis will last; the GOP needs to start thinking of the auto bailout request as a part of the economic stimulus package.

    If they let them go down, there will be much higher gov't expenditures in the short-term than the initial bail-out amount. Keeping them running during a recession lessens the need for government to subsidize more unemployed workers into the next growth cycle. Looking at it as part of a stimulus package rather than a bail-out; $34 billion plus a potential additional jolt or two is money well-spent in terms of keeping up to 3 million workers employed and much easier than creating new jobs.

    A savvy economist will also consider the money multiplier affect, and putting these funds into a mature private supply chain as far upstream as the Big 3 are will have optimal multiplier and velocity effects on economic growth relative to competing state infrastructure investments whose multiplier effects have never had the impact or speed of private investments.

    The problem is that most of the GOP Congress-people who are able to think like this are no more, the party has been taken over by a bunch of populists who couldn't pass an Econ 200 class if their life depended on it (with the exception of a few like Judd Gregg).

  • Michael_Heath

    Given the new incremental government expenditures that would occur if GM went down (which would take Ford with it); and given that no one can predict how long or deep this recession and credit crisis will last; the GOP needs to start thinking of the auto bailout request as a part of the economic stimulus package.

    If they let them go down, there will be much higher gov't expenditures in the short-term than the initial bail-out amount. Keeping them running during a recession lessens the need for government to subsidize more unemployed workers into the next growth cycle. Looking at it as part of a stimulus package rather than a bail-out; $34 billion plus a potential additional jolt or two is money well-spent in terms of keeping up to 3 million workers employed and much easier than creating new jobs.

    A savvy economist will also consider the money multiplier affect, and putting these funds into a mature private supply chain as far upstream as the Big 3 are will have optimal multiplier and velocity effects on economic growth relative to competing state infrastructure investments whose multiplier effects have never had the impact or speed of private investments.

    The problem is that most of the GOP Congress-people who are able to think like this are no more, the party has been taken over by a bunch of populists who couldn't pass an Econ 200 class if their life depended on it (with the exception of a few like Judd Gregg).

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