Tag Archives: shared sacrifice

Here’s the reason…

Well…there has been idea gestating in my head over the past couple of days that is a response to the columnists here in Michigan who are decrying the pushback to gov Snyders budget proposals as just more of the same special interest excesses that have put us in this dire budget crises. But, in this case, I think most of the pundits have it wrong….where workers have done their part over the past twenty years to help make the economy viable by giving back on wages and benefits with the promise of those givebacks being temporary, they have now awoken to the true fact that their sacrifice was just a part of a larger con game being run on them by business and repubs. I also feel that it is past time for them to see that the ‘shared sacrifice” that is espoused by Snyder is a one-sided bargain where business gets everything they want in tax breaks and the restriction of workers rights and the rest of us pay for it. Why should the workers and retirees of this state believe anything these guys say when they have been lied to for the last 20 years?

I contend that this pushback is a logical response to the lies and rigging of the economy that the repubs have foisted on us; and is not equivalent to the naked greed that drives business and their partner cons…the repubs…geez…

Here come the musings….

Well….was almost worked up into an outrage by ole Nolan in the News this morning but he really has nothing new to say except…nope, nothing new to say, just more of his same old schtick…greedy unions, put upon corporations, and shared sacrifice that is shared by everyone but the rich and those same corporations….I wonder how much he gets paid by those folks to keep spouting that nonsense? It must be really easy to write a column when you are given the talking points every morning…..and no, no one gives me talking points, although, I am repetitive at times and that’s why I’m not going to counterpunch today but just talk about a few things I see going on that need comment. I find it funny that rep King from New York would be holding hearings on Islamic radicalism in the congress right now…especially since he was a huge supporter of terrorist groups that funneled money and guns to the Irish Republican Army that was responsible for thousands of innocent people dying in northern Ireland. I guess it’s okay to support terrorism if it is a group you agree with but not if it is a group you can score political points demonizing. Typical repub thug….

Then, we had Michael Barone from the same right wing rag going after unions again (that’s right, it’s Thursday, attack unions day) and making the assertion that private sector companies that don’t have unions have been successful and their unionized counterparts have failed. Well, yeah, Mike, of course a business that can discard workers, offshore jobs, treat their workers like crap, and buy favorable legislation are going to thrive in your desired business climate….but the contention that unionized companies don’t thrive by sharing with their workers discounts the profits by all of the automobile companies over the last year. I can’t wait until the News gets into financial trouble and the first people to go are their older, more highly compensated columnists…and there won’t be a damn thing ole Mike and his ilk will be able to do about it….

Okay, there was some counterpunching here….but you know how it works here…I never know what I’m going to write until I get doing it….and that’s the fun….I hope for you and me….

Michigan, it’s a scam….

Well…I have a couple of predictions on the new budget proposals that have been put forth by the “CEO of Michigan”, and the idea that to keep our state solvent, we all need to “share the sacrifice” in lessening of services, higher taxes on individuals, and lowered expectations. Of course, the right wing press and the Chamber have come out salivating that one of their own is now governor and the proposals reflect their input…my question is: where was the people’s input? When did these folks talk to anyone but business? The answer is, they didn’t because they just don’t give a damn about you and me. This is just another example of the “long con” that the repubs are working on the people of Michigan and the rest of the US that purports to have the best interests of the people in mind, but any thought of the middle class is just a smoke screen to allow business to steal the rest of the country that they and their rich buddies don’t already own. For example, as I said yesterday, the proposed budget here in Michigan gives business a 1.8 billion tax break while raising taxes on individuals that same amount, another huge transfer of wealth from the workers to the rich, but that’s not the worst part of it. The new budget and the governor also say that they are going to phase out tax credits to retain and lure businesses to Michigan. But you and I both know that is a lie….the first time a business bitches about losing these credits, the repubs are going to fall all over themselves trying to give them more, more, more; so business taxes will continue to fall to zero while we’ll all pay for it. The repubs do nothing but lie, lie, lie, why would anyone believe them now?

This is an organized scam where business and the repubs have mapped it all out over a few year span…play on the patriotism of the people of Michigan to get them to buy into the “shared sacrifice” and then pay off business with larger and larger tax breaks and higher and higher profits so these repub legislators will have their next jobs assured after term limits force them to stop stealing from the people here….geez…