An open letter to the soon-to-be-former governor of Michigan Yo Mr. Snyder: Your first campaign for governor was impressively banal. In the heat of a Tea Party year, you promised competence and nerdiness. What you’ve provided is an extremism cloaked by a nearly unprecedented lack of charisma. You’ve been a consistent rubber stamp for the far right as you raised […]

Got hypocrisy? Tim Walberg is a member of the “Tea Party Caucus” in Congress and has declared publicly that he “was a tea partier before there was a tea party”. When it comes to wasting taxpayer money by fighting implementation of the Affordable Care Act through obstruction and a laughable number of repeal attempts, you won’t find anyone more determined […]

Pay no attention to the hypocrite behind the curtain [Caricature by DonkeyHotey from photos by Anne C. Savage for Eclectablog] Last Friday the American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees (AFSCME) union issued subpoenas for Governor Rick Snyder, Detroit Emergency Manager Kevyn Orr, Michigan treasurer Andy Dillon, and “transformation manager” Richard Baird, compelling their testimony regarding the Snyder administration’s […]

GOPocrisy in full display SEE UPDATES BELOW In 2013, Michigan Republicans have already sent 107 bills to Governor Rick Snyder, all but one of which he signed into law. Of those 106 new laws (pdf), all but 6 — 5.7% — were passed with Immediate Effect meaning that they went into effect immediately rather than the statutorily-mandated 90 days after […]

A house divided against the middle class cannot stand. It took two votes, but months after Governor Rick Snyder (R-MI) told legislators to “take a vote, not a vacation,” Medicaid expansion has finally passed Michigan’s state senate. An estimated 470,000 Michiganders who currently earn too much to qualify for Medicaid are likely to get fully subsidized health insurance as part of […]

Metrics, schmetrics. Did they think we wouldn’t notice??? Governor Snyder is takes great pride in his reliance on transparency and metrics as indicators of his “success” as the leader CEO of our state. His “dashboard” is supposedly a way for the citizens of our fine state to keep an eye on his “progress”. However, looking at his dashboard today, it’s […]

This is what happens when you vote Republican Since the beginning of this year, Eclectabloggers have written no fewer than 55 posts relating to Medicaid expansion, mostly centering on Michigan. When she came on as a contributor in April, Amy Lynn Smith instantly became a powerful voice for expansion of Medicaid in Michigan. There is no question in my mind […]

The so-called ‘party of personal responsibility’ again looks like the party of sweaty bullies. Cory Booker is the Michael Stipe of politics: not only does he not declare his sexual orientation, he purposely keeps it ambiguous. In a Washington Post profile on Tuesday, the Democratic nominee for the U.S. Senate noted that he hasn’t found a “life partner” yet and […]

Cold, callous, and without compassion (or a clue) I’ve written before about Michigan Republican Senator Joe Hune’s offensive opposition to expanding Medicaid to nearly half a million Michiganders — working Michiganders with jobs that don’t provide health insurance or a wage that allows them to purchase it on their own. In the past he has said, “I just can’t get […]

Don’t worry, that was just your retirement income being flushed down the proverbial toilet When the stock market crashed at the end of 2008 while George Bush was phoning in his last six months in office, retirees across the country watched as their nest eggs, retirement income accumulated over decades by investing in stocks and bonds, mainly through 401K plans, […]

‘While poverty persists, there is no freedom.’ – Nelson Mandela A few months ago, PPP Polls found that my Twitter account @LOLGOP would be slightly ahead of Rep. Justin Amash in a head-to-head race for Michigan’s U.S. Senate seat. Since then, Amash has expanded his national profile as a leading voice calling for an end of the broad surveillance being […]