The Classic Liberal Blog

Writing to you today (as always) from my humble home in the beautiful state of Michigan, and ... I'm here to tell you ... a President Obama will in fact, bring the Michigan economy to the rest of our great country.

Michigan's economy has been on a downward trend, and it keeps getting worse.  To get an idea of how long Michigan's economy has been sinking, read what the National Review Online's Greg Kaza had to say back on October 18, 2006 (emphasis added):

How bad is Michigan's labor market? Michigan is the only state to record a contraction in nonfarm payroll employment for five consecutive years. The state's labor market is headed for its sixth straight annual decline in 2006. This unprecedented contraction is centered in the private manufacturing sector, which peaked in July 1999. Total Michigan nonfarm employment peaked in June 2000. Employment in some of Michigan's metropolitan statistical areas peaked earlier - including Flint, which peaked in 1997.

Just a month later, the University of Michigan News Service declared:

Michigan's job-loss streak is the longest since Great Depression!

So how bad is it in Michigan really?  Bad.  Very bad.  And if you ask the Detroit News ... it's gonna get a lot worse! Unfortunately, they're right.

As of October 16, 2008:

• Michigan lost a whopping 28,000 jobs in September!
• Michigan's jobless rate declined to 8.7 percent in September ... not because new jobs were added, but because the state's work force ... dwindled by 19,000.
• Some 7,000 manufacturing jobs were lost, while 18,000 government jobs vanished last month too.
• From just one year ago, a total of 78,000 jobs have disappeared in Michigan, while the state's work force has declined by 85,000 or 1.7 percent.
• Michigan unemployment will most likely be in double digits next year, the first time it would hit that mark since September 1985.

The national unemployment rate is only 6.1%, so if you think you've got it bad ... we're way ahead of you ... and I wish I didn't have to say it, but ... it's gonna get worse.

Michigan is a "Blue" state with a capital "B!" We have strong unions, high taxes and the leftist social experiments Democrats like to call "investment opportunities." Republican politicians in Michigan for the most part, are leftist too.  It was a Republican-controlled house that in 2003, when "Jenny from the Block" Granholm first took office as governor, that:

• Delayed a scheduled income-tax cut by six months (costing taxpayers $77 million).
• Raised cigarette taxes by 75 cents ($300 million annual cost to smokers).
• Increased taxes on Detroit's casinos from 18 percent to 24 percent (costing $49 million).
• Increased driving fees and penalties (cost of $115 million annually).
• Sped up the collection of county property taxes.
• Avoided cuts in state government spending.

In light of the amazingly robust Michigan economy, the governor that presidential hopeful Barack Obama says is "... one of the greatest Governors in our country, one who is fighting the good fight ..." felt she needed to RAISE TAXES even more!  So in October 2007, Granholm and the now Democrat-controlled house, passed the largest tax hike in state history - taking another $1,350,000,000.00 from hard-working Michiganders and their families.

For the icing on the cake ... just a few weeks ago, the Democrats voted to raise property taxes!

In an interesting sideline note ... Governor Jennifer Granholm was slapped with a $19,500 lien on her inaugural committee earlier this year by the United States Treasury, for failure to pay her taxes! As always with Democrats, it's "do as I say, not as I do."

In the very thorough report, "Rich States, Poor States", the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) ranked Michigan as #50, the state with the worst economic outlook! Ohio and Illinois joined Michigan at the bottom of the list.

Why are these states at the bottom economically?  According to ALEC, "generally speaking, states that spend less, especially on income transfer programs, and states that tax less, particularly on productive activities such as working or investing, experience higher growth rates than states that tax and spend more."

Here's some of the highlights found by Arthur B. Laffer and Stephen Moore in their report:

• What do the three bottom-dwellers, Michigan, Ohio and Illinios have in common? Oppressive tax rates, meddlesome regulation, obese social welfare programs, sinking real estate values, and a steady stampede of outward migration.
• While the report found that from 1996 - 2006, Michigan, Ohio and Illinois were the worst states, Texas, Florida and Arizona were the three most successful. During this period, Texas gained 1.7 million net new jobs, Florida gained 1.4 million and Arizona gained 600,000. A growth rate of 18.5%, 21.4% and 28,9% respectively.
• One-third of all net new jobs in the United States from 1996 - 2006 were created in Texas, Florida and Arizona!
• It costs more to tax more! In the 3 successful states, state spending averaged $5,519 per person, while the average state spending in the 3 worst states averaged $6,484 per person. This means each person in the three worst economies in the country paid $1,279 more in taxes than those living in the 3 most economically successful states.
• Texas, Florida and Arizona are "right-to-work" states, while Michigan, Ohio and Illinois are not.
• Michigan, Ohio and Illinois also have a significantly higher minimum wage than Texas, Florida or Arizona.

Barack Obama, "the One," is promising to bring the economic policies of the three worst economies in the country to everyone!

Let's start with the reality of "Joe the Plumber" ... You see, the Democrats love to talk about "sticking it to the rich," as if the only people affected will be those such as the Rockerfellers and Bill Gates. The reality however, is that 3 out of 4 individual tax returns in the top 1% are small businesses!

Obama claims, "Only a few percent of small businesses make more than $250,000 a year. So the vast majority of small businesses would get a tax cut under my plan." However, according to the U.S. Small Business Administration, the cut-off between small and large businesses ranges from 500-1,000 employees per business depending on industry. Let's be real here ... how many businesses with 500 or more employee's have less than $250,000 a year in revenues? None. They wouldn't even be able to cover their payroll if their revenues were that low. You can read more about Obama's tax plan and small business here.

Michigan, Ohio and Illinois have already proved that raising taxes destroys jobs, but Barack Obama obviously wants to make things worse.  Besides raising taxes, Obama also desires to increase government spending! Nevermind any hope for a balanced budget, "the One" wants to take more money away from hard-working families for more of his wild "investment opportunities," just like Granholm, the governor of Michigan, the state with the worst economy in the union.

Barack Obama also plans to expand unionism by increasing union power! In a disturbing statement to the Teamsters, he promised to end the Independent Review Board (IRB), created by the federal government in 1989 to rid the union of organized crime. As CBS News notes:

"Labor leaders have made plausible arguments for shutting down the IRB, but a Chicago politician should be extremely wary of acceding to them. If there is continuing mob influence in the Teamsters, it is probably centered in the Chicago area. And in the last decade, the Teamsters in Chicago have shown little enthusiasm for rooting out corruption in their ranks ... Yet the taint of corruption and of ties to organized crime [seem] not to ruffle Obama and his campaign."

In an effort to support the unions instead of the workers, Barack Obama supports the "card check" proposal. Under current law, a union doesn't become a representative of an employee until a majority of the workers vote in favor of that status in an election. The voters choice remains "secret," the same as your's or mine's vote for president.

The "card check" proposal however, eliminates an employee's ability to keep his vote to himself. According to the ShopFloor Blog (emphasis added):

"A union will be certified as the bargaining representative of employees upon its presentation to the National Labor Relations Board of cards by a majority of employees in the bargaining unit. In other words, no election."

Put another way ... this means the union already represents the employee prior to any vote to establish a union, but also, the union thugs can go door-to-door, person-to-person, carrying a union card expecting a signature asking "Are you for the union, or not?" Hmmm ... I wonder if they'll carry baseball bats?

This "card check" proposal is so extreme, that former Democratic presidential candidate George McGovern has come out against it stating:

"I'm concerned about a bill in Congress that would effectively eliminate an employee's right to a private vote when deciding whether to join a union. It's hard to believe any politician would agree to a law denying millions of employees the right to a private vote. I've always been a champion of labor unions, but I fear that today's union leaders are turning their backs on democratic workplace elections ... Quite simply, this proposed law cannot be justified. Working families deserve a voice and their private vote."

The results are clear. If you desire economic decline, less income, and union thugs showing up on your doorstep - vote for Obama. But if you prefer prosperity for all, run from any and all politicians who want to raise taxes, increase government handouts, and believes in the state more than they believe in"we the people."