Hello. My name is Cathleen Carrigan, but you know me as wizardkitten. You might remember me from my extensive body of work on the election last year.
It appears that my series on Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans here at Blogging For Michigan has caused quite the nationwide stir.
Good.
It's about time that people started paying attention to the fact that Mike Bishop and the Senate Republicans are blocking progress for the citizens of Michigan. The Republican Party in this state has obstructed my Governor, Jennifer Granholm, at every turn during her time in office, and I want the whole nation to know about it. They are currently dragging their feet on fixing the budget crisis that faces Michigan, and that has been my focus for most of this year, both at this site and at my own blog.
I started this series on July 24th- it's the "Senate Republican Statement of the Day". I decided to do this after reading the Senate Journals and listening to these guys get up day after day and say the most outrageous things... and I felt it was time to give them a little more publicity.
Apparently Mike Bishop has taken offense to a post I did on Bruce Patterson, and decided to shut off access to this site for the Michigan Senate. Senate Republicans are trying to claim that this is the work of a Senate employee because, according to MIRS- "the blog updated after session and it coincides with what the Senate's doing."
Yes. Just as soon as you guys put this on the web, and the stories hit the papers/journals, I am on it. I am just that quick.
I found it very interesting that you would single out this blog and try to keep us from speaking out, especially right when the Senate Democrats are going to start a series of posts here. Other people are finding that interesting as well.
Let's address the post that Bishop/Miner is referring to. If you look at that post on Patterson, you will see that it was made the day after he said the things that he said.
We can't work on policy because of the budget. We can't work on the budget because we might scare people. We apparently didn't get anything done during the latest two week "working" vacation over the 4th... and now Gongwer went and added up the number of bills passed between chambers, and it's not very flattering.
Matt Marsden, spokesperson for Senate Majority Leader Mike Bishop (R-Rochester), said, "The reality is there is a focus on the budget that has put the bill numbers where they are."
The answer to this terrible dilemma? Take August off!
Gongwer compared to 1997 when we had a House/Senate split in party leadership- that year they managed to crank out 93 in the same time period. This year it's 46.
Mr. Marsden was confident that once the budget is dealt with, both chambers will be addressing more policy matters.
Mike Bishop made a surprising statement on last week's To The Point, so I thought I would offer it up for today.
At the time it slipped by me, because, well, you could almost put the whole Granholm-bashing transcript up and call it the "statement of the day". I grew weary of listening to him, and he was only on for 15 minutes.
This was pointed out to me later as odd- and when I listened again, yes, it seemed rather odd that Bishop would say this-
Albin: Have the six months that you've just experienced been what you expected?
Bishop: It's a good question... certainly my wife would give you a different answer...
You know, the budget has become quite a large issue, one that I didn't anticipate, and it's one that will continue to be a large issue... and the answer is no, it's much more budget oriented than it was in the past, but it's our responsibility and we are prepared to do it.
Mike didn't anticipate the budget problem?
Was he just not paying attention when last December the news reports indicated this? (Peter Luke 12/22/2006- now archived)
Most fiscal analysts peg current budget shortfalls this fiscal year between $300 million and $600 million, with about half of that occurring in the K-12 education budget. In fiscal year 2008, the House Fiscal Agency is identifying nearly $700 million in new spending pressures for which there is no new tax revenue.
And Mike didn't know about that when he walked in the door as the new Senate Majority leader last January?
I swear there isn't a day goes by that Nancy Cassis isn't trying to figure out some way to stick it to the poor and the working class people in this state.
From introducing "right to work" legislation, to suspending the prevailing wage, to the newest and perhaps most vile move, trying to prevent the Earned Income Tax Credit from going into effect in January 2008, Cassis proves time and time again that she is one of those Republicans that is trying to return us to the Gilded Age.
A little back-story on this story- our previous Republican legislature made some mistakes writing the minimum wage bill last year. In their haste, they ignored a flaw that would give overtime pay to some workers currently not qualified. They knew it was there. "We'll deal with the fallout later", they said.
When business freaked out about that, the Republicans had to come up to the window with something to get the Governor to sign off on a fix. Off we went on months of bargaining as the Republicans scrambled to rectify the error they created with their casual indifference.
August 30th last year they reached an agreement to save their skin with the business community- and it included an earned income tax credit for the working poor. Democrats and Republicans alike praised the move; Bob Emerson proclaiming "this bill is a major step in making our tax structure less regressive", admitting that the tax burden falls disproportionately on the poor here in Michigan.
Everyone is happy, right? Not Cassis.
Nancy tries to take food from the mouths of children over the flip...
No Republicans spoke to the Senate journals yesterday- so we have to turn to Gongwer/MIRS for our statement of the day, and for all the latest budget news.
The MSM has seemingly lost interest in the state budget; things happened, things were said, no one is reporting on the overall movement except for the pay services. The MSM is reporting on the fallout from the lack of action on the budget, though, in the form of the tuition increases- with a big, above the fold headline in the Detroit News today.
The Senate Journals are a treasure trove of wonder. Many times I have gotten a hearty laugh (or I just shake my head in disbelief) at some of the things uttered on the Senate floor.
Usually it is Cassis or McManus providing the bewildering statement of the day, Cropsey and Patterson come up with some real doozies, too.
I'll highlight the absurdity when I can- sometimes they don't speak, most of the time lately they aren't even there. With a whole five- count' em five- session days scheduled in August (crisis? what crisis?), we might not get much material for this series.
