What Public Employees Do

While Republicans in Michigan join their far-right friends across the nation in kicking public employees in the teeth for still having pensions, some Ingham County-area firefighters went about doing their jobs.

And we should make sure Rick Snyder is reminded of it everytime he starts dumping on public employees.

The Lansing State Journal reported over the weekend in an article headlined, "Chief: Leslie Firefighers Lucky to be Alive" what it is that firefighters actually do:

"Leslie Fire Chief Bruce Howe says five firefighters who fell through a roof while fighting a downtown building blaze Saturday are lucky to be alive."

It gets worse.

"The firefighters - among 10 firefighters injured Saturday during the fire at Moo's Bar & Grill - were trapped in the burning building for roughly 30 minutes until a rescue team pulled them from the structure, officials said."

Experiences like "fell through a roof" and "trapped in the burning building for roughly 30 minutes" should be enough to justify giving these people the pensions and decent salaries they negotiated.

But Snyder wants to pull the rug out from under them by allowing local governments to rip up their union contracts unilaterally if they are in financial trouble. And he wants to cut revenue sharing to make sure more local governments fall into financial trouble. Rep. Cindy Denby, R-Fowlerville, is pushing legislation that already has passed the House that would let local governments unilaterally dump the negotiated contracts if they are thinking about consolidating services.

Not sure how either of them would react if they were trapped inside a burning building for 30 minutes, after having gotten there by falling through a burning roof. But I bet afterwards neither one would want to do it again.

The supply of people willing to do those sorts of things in our society is really pretty small. If we drive them away, who will replace them?

Spare Us the Platitudes, Snyder

Rick Snyder, who skated through a primary and general election campaign without ever having to say anything specific, is still spouting generalities and getting away with it.

Last week, he told business interests that the $1.8 billion tax cut he is giving them, paid for by senior citizens and poor people, is not about politics. "It's about doing the right thing," he said.

Spare us the platitudes, buddy. You are not the sole determiner of right and wrong for the entire state. Something isn't automatically "right" just because it's your policy.

Is it "right" to unilaterally break contracts between working people and local governments entered into freely by both sides, just because you want to? Why isn't the "right thing to do" to show working people some respect and renegotiate those contracts?

Is it "right" to rob $500 million from the school aid fund in order to force hundreds of school districts into such dire budgetary crises that they need to be taken over by someone you appoint?

Is it "right" to take away Michigan citizens' right to vote for local elected officials, virtually on a whim, so that you can rip up contracts you don't like?

Is it "right" to deny the unemployed in Michigan the same 26 weeks of unemployment benefits that other states give, when those extra six weeks contribute nothing to the state's budget problems yet pump millions into our state economy, helping keep families -- and local businesses -- afloat?

Is it "right" to tell teachers who were encouraged to take early retirement last year in order to save local districts money that, oh, yeah, now we're going to tax that pension we pushed you into taking early?

Is it "right" that most businesses in Michigan will pay no taxes on their profits -- ever -- no matter how many services they demand from our state government in the form of educated workers, public safety, and transportation?

Is it "right" to kill a new industry -- the film industry -- that is providing millions in new investment and thousands of new jobs, just because your predecessor started it?

None of these things is "right" just because you proposed them. But since you can't find any statistics to justify your policies, you played the platitude card. Better go back to the drawing board because the people aren't buying it.

Tasteless Appeal by Tea Party Group

One would think that trying to save lives would be something that could be done without injecting politics into it.

But if you're talking about something tea-baggers do, that would not be the case.

Livingston County tea-baggers are organizing blood drives, a worthy thing to do and something local Democrats have done in the past. But they couldn't just let it go at that. They had to make it political by using the theme, "Donate Blood, Before the IRS Bleeds Us Dry."

First of all, the tea-baggers vastly exaggerate the tax burden in this country. They ignore the fact that the overall tax burden in the U.S. is at the same level as 1950 and that federal taxes under President Obama are 13 percent lower than when George Bush was president. The decline is due in part to tax cuts included in President Obama's stimulus package -- something that tea-baggers conveniently forget when they attack the measure for adding to the deficit. So the appeal is not even accurate. The IRS is not bleeding anyone dry.

One wonders if the only way the tea-baggers could get their members to do a good deed for someone else was to resort to a bald-faced political lie as motivation.

Furthermore, what are the limits to injecting politics into saving lives? Will the Red Cross, which is supposed to be non-partisan, start allowing groups to designate their blood only for "red-blooded Americans," leaving out undocumented residents or gays or Muslims, for example?

Trying to save lives should be something all Americans can agree on. It should be done in a way that unites us, not divides us. Sooner or later, we all need help, and when we're helping each other we should help each other as human beings, not because we want to make a political point. Using someone else's misfortune to score political points is tasteless.

'Right to Vote' Replaced by 'Privilege to Vote' Locally in Michigan

You may not have noticed, but Michigan residents have lost the right to vote in local elections.

You may not have noticed because the local news media is not describing Rick Snyder's emergency manager legislation that way. But that is what it did.

The right to vote for our leaders at the local level has been eliminated. The right to vote for school board members, township trustees and officials, and so on is now only allowed in those communities that Snyder thinks deserves to have that right.

The right to vote for local leaders has been replaced by the privilege to vote, bestowed where Snyder thinks local leaders have done enough busting of unions and cutting of services to deserve the privilege.

Michigan news media have been treating this power grab through emergency managers as only theoretical, reassuring us as the Detroit Free Press did recently, that Snyder is a nice guy and would never do anything nasty.

But on Friday (March 25, 2011) the newspaper had to report that 150 school districts and charter schools are in deficit and more could be forced into the situation due to Snyder's cuts in state aid to schools, which are coming at a time when the school aid fund has a huge surplus.

Even taking out a large number of charter schools, which the local people don't get to elect and have no say over, that's an awful lot of people disenfranchised.

Everybody was fine with that concept when they thought it was only going to those black people in Detroit, but now it's clear the law will reach into every part of Michigan.

Everybody still OK with that?

Life Isn't So Plush for All Young Retirees

Supporters of Rick Snyder's plan to tax the pensions of Michigan retirees are trying to start some intergenerational warfare with their claim that many retirees are only in their 50s and therefore are better able to pay taxes on their pensions than older people.

This is a bubble that needs bursting.

First of all, many people forced into early retirement in their mid-50s were not happy about it. They were often planning to work several more years to build up their nest egg. Now, they find themselves living on a fixed income with far fewer reserves to fall back on than they had planned. On top of that, their smaller reserves are going to have to cover more retirement years -- maybe 10 more years.

Secondly, many retirees in their mid-50s still have mortgages to pay off. They likely expected to work until their 60s and to finish paying off the house by then. Now they have a mortgage payment, on top of the smaller savings.

Thirdly, it's not at all uncommon for people in their 50s to still have kids in college, maybe a couple. They expected to still be working when their children finished college. So now they have college tuition bills, a mortgage payment, and a smaller nest egg.

Fourth, many retirees in other years could easily find part-time jobs to supplement their income if their company fell on hard times and had to let them go early. But in this economy, employers are snubbing older workers, making that very difficult, especially when many companies are laying off at once. So these young retirees have limited ways to supplement their income, on top of the college tuition bills, a mortgage payment, and a smaller nest egg.

These people may be younger than previous retirees, but that does not by any means guarantee that they are better off. Their golden years may last longer but not be nearly as golden as Snyder wants us to believe.

Granholm's Program Gets Standing Ovation

Rick Snyder is getting all kinds of plaudits -- not for his own policies, but for one of former Democratic Gov. Jennifer Granholm's programs.

The Detroit Free Press says the tourism industry gave Snyder a standing ovation because he agreed to fund the Pure Michigan tourism ad campaign for $25 million. The program actually started under Granholm and has been hailed as a standout state tourism campaign.

The newspaper, of course, failed to mention that Snyder's predecessor started the campaign.

Wouldn't want to dull any of the luster for the newspaper's candidate, would they?

Budget Director Suffers from Irony Deficiency Anemia

Rick Snyder's new budget director suffers from a curable disease -- irony deficiency anemia.

John Nixon had the nerve to say on Off the Record recently not just for the quarter of a million dollar salary he is taking from the taxpayers, but because the state has great schools. And then he promptly turned around and defended cutting $600 million from school aid, claiming it's only a 5 percent cut and it won't make any difference in school quality. Never mind the fact that the schools had to take a cut last year and that the school aid fund has millions of dollars in surplus.

How does he think Michigan schools got to be so good -- by taking 5 percent cuts every year?

The irony of his remarks apparently went right over his head. That's why I believe he has a disease -- irony deficiency anemia. He should take some of his big salary and go out and buy a bottle of Geritol, the old cure for iron deficiency anemia. I'm sure it will work for Nixon's condition.