Posted on 09/27/2011 7:00:26 AM PDT by Recovering_Democrat
Some politicians give us failure. Some politicians give us failure mixed with spectacle. Once in a generation, a politician gives us failure and misunderstanding so colossal that his or her bad example rises to the level of public service.
To this elite few belongs Jennifer Granholm.
In the Michigan she governed for eight long years, the roll call of despair is not in dispute. On her watch, the state's ranking in per capita GDP plummeted to 41st place from 24th, Detroit's population shriveled to its lowest level since 1910, and Michigan earned the dubious distinction of being the only state ...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
to suffer a net out-migration this past decade...
These refugees now include Ms. Granholm herself...She and her husband have moved to Berkeley, where they are both teaching.
... Today she is running around the nation selling a book and a message. The book is called "A Governor's Story: The Fight for Jobs and America's Economic Future." Her message—that Granholm's Michigan shows the way forward—has been taken seriously in all the places you might expect...
At the top of Ms. Granholm's claims is that she knows that low taxes and lean government are no prescription for growth because she tried supply-side and found it wanting. This will part of Hussein's message in 2012, I predict!--RD
To prove her point, her appendix lists 99 business and 17 individual "tax cuts" she approved. She notes likewise that both state spending and the number of state employees dropped during her time.
In fact, almost all Ms. Granholm's "tax cuts" are tax credits or other forms of tax preferences. A less delicate way of saying this is that far from reducing rates for everyone, Ms. Granholm played favorites. That meant a more complicated tax code where trendy businesses (green jobs, anyone?) that would fail without subsidies are effectively underwritten by non-favored businesses and other taxpayers. Sound familiar anyone?--RD
A better indication of Ms. Granholm's tax record would thus include the $1.4 billion tax increase in business and personal taxes in 2007, not to mention the tax hike she tried to inflict on her way out. Much the same might be said of her claims to fiscal discipline...Ms. Granholm's cuts were forced by the collapse in revenues resulting from the state's failing economy. Hussein's claim of falling government employee numbers will be based on the same thing! His "stimulus" grew those numbers and now with no "stimulus" they will be falling. DUH!--RD
In fairness, the thing Ms. Granholm is most blamed for is likely the one most out of her control: the loss of an astounding 630,000 Michigan jobs over her tenure. She is certainly right that most of these losses were the result of larger economic trends and events. More contestable is her assertion that her industrial policy—throwing state and federal dollars at pet progressive industries such as advanced battery technology—is the answer. IOW, playing favorites again!--RD
Michael LaFaive of Michigan's free-market Mackinac Center puts it this way: "What Ms. Granholm's state investments were best at producing were press releases claiming thousands upon thousands of jobs—in the future." Thus her most infamous prediction, when in 2006 she assured the people of Michigan this: "In five years, you're going to be blown away by the strength and diversity of Michigan's transformed economy."
Michiganders are still waiting. In the teeth of competition that is keener than ever, of changes in technology that are coming faster than ever, and with a diffusion of knowledge and expertise that is vaster than ever, Ms. Granholm's conclusion is this: Politicians and their bureaucrats will channel capital better than a market representing tens of millions of individual investor decisions. This previous sentence exemplifies the keynesian/communist/central control/ philosophy accurately. It is done in layman's terms, and can be used to help show our friends, neighbors, and families how WRONG Hussein is on the issue!--RD
This logic can lead to embarrassment. A year and a half before Americans learned about Solyndra, Gov. Granholm stood next to Flint businessman Richard Short at a press conference and declared that the $9.1 million in state tax credits that her government had awarded his renewable energy company would mean 765 jobs. The next day, Mr. Short was arrested.
Turns out Ms. Granholm's people had not known that their champion of green jobs was a convicted felon out on parole. Two months ago he was sentenced to prison after pleading no contest to making fraudulent statements on his application for the energy credits.
In the end, Ms. Granholm's argument is simply a form of the same economic narcissism that animates people who never lose the charming faith that they know best how to spend other people's money. In some ways, she intimates, her leadership was the precursor to hope and change. "It's remarkable how in sync we are," she quotes her communications director saying of the governor and Barack Obama.
Yes, indeed. If you liked Gov. Granholm's Michigan, you'll love President Obama's America.
Herman Cain's 999 plan would go a long way to fixing Detroit's (and every other city's) problems associated with low employment. The key, however, is to make the tax cuts permanent so they affect the planning model.
As one of those refugees now living in the Great State of Alabama, I can say not only were we "blown away", we were driven away.
Put in the simplest of terms:
Populations follow jobs;
Jobs follow Capital;
Capital follows the path of least resistance. (Resistance being taxes, regulations, corruption, and poltical interference)
Remember when all the Rats said she was the future of the party and if only she was not Canadian, she would be an awesome President. She is now a punchline with the rest of the Marxist in the party. Hilarious. That is why she is relegated to teaching losers in Berkley now. Total disgrace. If you would like to learn how to be the worst Gov in history, she just wrote a blueprint on how to do it.
http://www.amazon.com/Governors-Story-Americas-Economic-Future/dp/1586489976
I do not like Obama,
Sam-I-am.
I do not like him
For I’m an American.
Would you like him
Here or there?
I would not like him
here or there.
I would not like him
anywhere.
I do not like ObamAmericans
I do not like them,
Sam-I-am
Would you like him
in the White House?
Would you like him
Though he’s a louse?
I do not like him
in the White House.
I do agree he is a louse.
I do not like him
here or there.
I do not like him
anywhere.
I do not like Obama’s America.
When he’s deposed we’ll scream Hurrah!!
the article doesn’t mention a couple things:
first the film credit tax break- that was also used as a tax break for video games.
second, the film tax break was minimal, and convoluted. so much so that a movie (the tooth fairy) which was set in Lansing, MI was actually filmed, not only out of state, but out of the country. (and oddly enough, it was filmed in her hometown of vancouver).
third, her temporary tax breaks were a waste, a number of businesses that came to MI for the tax breaks packed up and left as soon as the tax breaks expired.
also not noted just how many taxes she increased or created- including adding a “service tax”
Frankly Michigan got what they deserved when they elected Commie Babe Canuck Governor Jenny. She did not say or do anything that my economically clueless neighbors did not express agreement with on a daily basis the whole time I was living there.
If anything I am amazed that they have now swung back and elected enough Republicans to have actually repealed the item pricing law.
There is so much to Michigan’s governance that seems designed to destroy business. Among thee worst is the astounding 30% inventory tax.
Every business feels the pressure to have nothing (Spare parts, Sales inventory, service repair inventory) on hand because of this exorbitant tax. If something sits on the shelf for three years, you’ve paid for it twice.
On top of that, there is the cost of counting every miniscule item a couple of times each year to satisfy the reporting requirement.
It wasn’t just Granholm that is at fault but the legislature and the whole damn state. When the rest of the country was going like gangbusters and Michigan was having a one state recession, you would hear people muttering about it and blaming Bush.
“Capital follows the path of least resistance. (Resistance being taxes, regulations, corruption, and poltical interference)”
A very nice summation, very nice indeed.
She wears those glasses designed to make the wearer look intelligent.
One of the best days Michigan ever had was the day the Canadian socialist, and the geek she's married to left the state.
She should have the face warts removed and have her mouth widened. A change in hairdo would complete the look.
Seems? It doesn't just seem that way, it actually IS that way. The goal of our "leaders" is to destroy all means of independent wealth creation in this country. The USA can't be subjugated and subsumed into a One World Government with a strong, economically independent Middle-class society.
She was right. In five years, I was blown away. My career of almost 20 years blew away like dust in the wind. Soon after, I blew away to a new job 500 miles away in another state. Eight months laster, the rest of my family blew away after we sold our house. I made signs for the back of our cars as we wee leaving our home state. “Another Michigan Family BLOWN AWAY...Thanks Jenny”
Indiana used to have the same tax but dropped it years ago, as it was driving business out of the state. Nice to see a state that knows when something is stupid.
Well, she’s gone and California will be a better example of Bammy’s America in the future.
In Michigan, we’re actually turning things around. California doubled down on stupid.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.