Published on Feb. 5, 2011 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Jan. 28, 2011 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Jan. 27, 2011 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Jan. 18, 2011 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Dec. 16, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Dec. 10, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Dec. 7, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Dec. 6, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Nov. 23, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Nov. 17, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Nov. 12, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Nov. 5, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Nov. 3, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 27, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 21, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 20, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 19, 2010
The headline of
a story today's Detroit Free Press characterizes Gov. Jennifer Granholm's understanding of the state film production subsidies' role like this: "Goal of film tax credit is jobs, not more revenue." This reminds one of the late economist Milton Friedman's question upon seeing a U.S. taxpayer-funded public works project in a poor country where thousands of men with shovels were moving dirt one spadeful at a time.
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Published on Oct. 11, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 5, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
On Thursday the plug was
officially pulled on a monumentally hyped film endeavor in Allen Park called "Unity Studios." There were no press releases from the Governor's office or the Michigan Economic Development Corp. announcing the evaporation of the mirage.
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Published on Oct. 1, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Oct. 1, 2010
Published on Sept. 29, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Sept. 26, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Sept. 22, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Sept. 21, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Sept. 20, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Sept. 2, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 31, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 29, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 26, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 25, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Alleged
plagiarism in a study by an MSU scholar matters more than just as a violation of academic standards. The
deeply flawed study wildly exaggerates the amount that could be saved by consolidating Michigan school districts, which will divert attention from the
real solution to funding problems in Michigan public schools — scaling back
outsized employee compensation and
benefits. This is the second time in the last year that a flawed study was produced by an MSU professor that
serves the interests of government employees and their unions.
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Published on Aug. 23, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 17, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 15, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on Aug. 11, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Here's how important I think Angelo M. Codevilla's American Spectator article is: It makes me think of Thomas Paine's
Common Sense.
Excerpt: "Our ruling class's agenda is power for itself. While it stakes its claim through intellectual-moral pretense, it holds power by one of the oldest and most prosaic of means: patronage and promises thereof."
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Published on July 27, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Yesterday, President Barack Obama and Gov. Jennifer Granholm came to Holland bearing gifts: cash subsidies for an electric car battery plant owned by the Korean firm LG Chem. The federal contribution is $151 million in "stimulus" money, and Michigan taxpayers are kicking in another $100 million. This means that each of the plant's approximately 400 jobs will cost taxpayers $625,000. At this rate, it would cost $5
trillion to provide employment to the approximately 8 million Americans who lost have their jobs in the current downturn.
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Published on July 18, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on July 17, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on July 12, 2010
Published on July 2, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on June 29, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on June 22, 2010
Efforts to break the political stranglehold by rearranging the institutional furniture at best consumes energy better spent striking at the real root of our problems.
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Published on June 14, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on June 7, 2010
Published on May 10, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Published on May 10, 2010
Published on May 1, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
Tax Day Tea Party rallies were held across the state and nation last week, with mixed results in turnout. Regardless of the exact attendance, the movement represents a potent new force on the American political landscape. Its leaders and members are currently focused on changing the composition of Congress in November, but their real challenge will be finding ways after the election to pressure the political class — especially Republicans — to stick to the fiscal restraint promises made in the heat of the campaign.
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Published on April 20, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
In 1992, incumbent Republican Congressman
Bob Davis chose not to run for re-election in the Michigan 1st District because he was one of the top five politicians implicated in the House “
check kiting“ scandal. Davis had represented the district covering the northern Lower Peninsula and the entire Upper Peninsula since 1978. Poor decisions made then by a state Republican establishment alienated many grass roots “true believers” in the district, opening the door for a former one-term Democrat state Representative, who won and went on to an 18-year Congressional career.
Fast forward to 2010: The 1st District seat has once again become open due to a misstep by the incumbent, that once little-known Democrat who won the seat in 1992. His name, of course, is Bart Stupak, and the misstep was his vote in favor of President Barack Obama’s health care bill. And once again, members of the Republican establishment are making moves that could diminish grass roots support for the party’s eventual candidate in the November general election, potentially leading to the ascension of yet another Democrat “dynasty” in the 1st District.
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Published on April 15, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential
The Legislature returns today after a two-week break to take up perhaps the greatest challenge facing state government since 1983: an estimated $1.5 billion budget shortfall. Making this all the more difficult is the apparent inability of lawmakers to adopt what most struggling private-sector
workers and small-business
owners view as modest reductions in state employee pay and benefits. That failure was highlighted in three separate events just before the break.
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Published on April 13, 2010 – Michigan Capitol Confidential