It may just seem to be a naive, simplistic, "let's just get ANYTHING" done statement which completely ignores the entire differences between the two sides - it does lead me to wonder why the two sides can't at least work together to bridge part of the gap. Why can't the two sides get together and piece together a set of spending cuts which will at least get the government part of the way to their goals? If they can chop between one-third and one-half of the budget, then it will at least shore up how drastic the cuts have to be later. There has to be SOMETHING the two sides can agree on. Getting a partial package in place immediately is a critical first step.
Put Michigan first - now
April 1, 2007Two crises grip Michigan: economic and leadership.
The forces behind the first are, in part, global and national. There are no such excuses for lack of leadership. Governor Jennifer Granholm and her political counterweight, state Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop, have done next to nothing to resolve a budget mess that creates a great uncertainty in business, schools, and local governments.
This stalemate threatens to wreck Michigan's credit rating, saddle the state with a reputation for fiscal buffoonery and suck away more tax dollars to higher interest payments.
Granholm and Bishop have thrown competing plans on the table and declared the other's dead. That's not leadership. That's gamesmanship, and the situation in Michigan is too critical for games.
Now the governor is running around to her constituent groups telling them to send letters and e-mails to the Legislature backing her position. She's imposing small, overdue spending controls and announcing plans to shut down state government next month. House Republicans are leading a petition drive against tax increases, and the Senate is taking the next two weeks off.
For whom are these people working? Not the taxpayers of Michigan, that's for sure.
The Detroit Free Press rarely in the last century has given front-page space to its editorial opinions. But when people ask us, "What on earth is going on in Lansing?" we feel compelled to say in this prominent way "nothing much" except partisan hissing.
It's shameful.
After some small-change cuts and accounting gimmicks, the state still has a $686-million budget shortfall for a fiscal year with only six months to go. The longer it takes to fix that, the more drastic the solutions and the more damage done to the state's already deteriorating reputation among investors.
Whether it's the spending cuts Republicans demand or combined cuts and tax increases as the governor proposes, it has to be something. Right now, folks, we have nothing.
A basic negotiating tactic: Find one common principle and build on it with hard give-and-take that's considered successful if everybody leaves the table a little unhappy. Why isn't this happening in the Capitol?
How bad must things get before this state's so-called leaders realize whom they signed on to work for -- and lead?
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