Learning From Mistakes

As our country, or i guess more our government sets to lead us into socialism with high taxes and big spending, perhaps we should take some time and review a state that already knows far too well what those policies can lead to.

The National Review Online, wrote today about the two terms of Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm, and how the state has fared under her watch.

Granholm entered office on the tired heels of a three-term Republican with a wave of good tidings as the state’s first female governor. Beautiful, silver-tongued, and Harvard Law–educated, Granholm was a young pol with little executive seasoning. Supremely self-confident despite her inexperience, Granholm raised income taxes (as the state’s economy literally and figuratively headed south), “invested” billions of stimulus dollars in infrastructure that she predicted would create tens of thousands of jobs, mandated renewable-power standards, and backed them up with millions in government subsidies to transform Michigan from “the Rust Belt to the Green Belt.” In her 2006 State of the State address, she promised that “in five years, you’ll be blown away.”

Four years in and it’s blowing hard, all right. Michigan’s unemployment rate has more than doubled, to over 14 percent. Yes, the state’s per capita income drop from 20th in the nation to 40th has tracked a historic restructuring of the state’s auto industry, but Granholm’s Obamaesque policy prescriptions have been anti-growth while fueling budget deficits to record highs.

In her speech Wednesday, the governor declared herself a visionary. “The contours of the new Michigan economy are . . . taking shape in communities across our state,” she said before a legislature that her partisan tactics have hopelessly divided. The government shut down in 2007 and came to the brink again in 2009.

Granholm dismisses the thought that Michigan might be responsible for its own plight through onerous taxation or stubborn unions. She sees Michigan as a victim — of trade policies and greedy corporations taking jobs to Mexico — and her government as its savior. Government, she emphasized, is the mother of job creation. Not once (as has been her seven-year pattern) did she propose a fundamental fix to Michigan’s antiquated tax laws, union culture, or government programs. Instead, she focused on all the jobs she — me, me, me — had brought to the state:

A new electronics plant (that “my nine overseas jobs missions have brought” because “I was able to close the deal”) in Battle Creek, bought with government incentives.

A solar manufacturing facility in Saginaw, the result of a federal Department of Energy loan.

Homeland Security jobs and defense-contractor pork, funded by Uncle Sugar.

Wind-turbine production by Dowding Machining in Easton Rapids, bought with $7 million in federal stimulus funding.

And so on.

Hmmm, big spending, stimulus, green jobs, high taxes, where have i seen this before? Oh yeah, that is what is happening today. Only on a much larger scale. Surely we will not repeat Michigan's mistake. And I have a feeling Michigan doesn't want us to either. i predict the GOP will take Michigan this fall.

So there you have. Michigan is in an economic turmoil, why? because of "stimulus", spending, and higher taxes, and government regulation. I'm sure michigan is very happy with the way Granholm regulated and tanked the Michigan Auto Industry.

If you want a look at the future of America, just look at Michigan today.