“A budget is moral document” – Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Yesterday, the group Priorities Michigan held a press conference to highlight the faces of real people who are victims of callous, unfair Republican budgets. Intent on diminishing the size and scope of government, Republicans have shrunk our state budget by giving billions of dollars of tax breaks to corporations. […]

Governor Snyder’s reelection campaign released a new ad today that is about as puzzling as his previous ads. He has abandoned his frogman suit and creepy leering at the camera, instead appearing in a t-shirt. He starts the ad by telling us that he’s an accountant as if that should give us comfort when it comes to his political and […]

I see what you’re doing here. We all do. I think all of us are, like Amy described in her righteous rant yesterday, sick and tired of being held hostage by extremist right wing ideologues who behave like petulant children when they don’t get absolutely everything they want. What’s most infuriating about it is that these very same ideologues have […]

It’s a one-word answer: Obamacare. Republicans who oppose Obamacare just don’t want to say “yes” to anything related to the Affordable Care Act (ACA). Medicaid expansion is part of the ACA, but the U.S. Supreme Court left the decision to accept Medicaid expansion up to the states. And Michigan is among those with Republican-controlled legislatures that are fighting against Medicaid […]

Tell Michigan’s House and Senate Appropriations Committees to include Medicaid expansion in this year’s budget

Both the Michigan House and Senate Appropriations Committees are holding hearings TOMORROW Thursday, Apr. 11, where they might decide to include Medicaid expansion in this year’s budget. Expanding and strengthening Medicaid is vitally important to Michigan’s citizens and economy.

Our friends at Michigan Consumers for Healthcare are asking everyone to show their support for including Medicaid expansion in this year’s budget.

Click through to find out how you can easily take action.

“Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”

Earlier today I wrote about the budget priorities of the Michigan House Democrats. In that piece I wrote, “In stark contrast to our far-right ideological Republicans and our corporatist Governor, the Democrats’ priorities reflect concern and care for middle class families, children and seniors. Their budget is a sincere reflection of their values.”

Little did I know that just a few hours later, House Republicans would show their values. It’s a very ugly thing to behold.

All the gory details after the jump.

“Don’t tell me what you value. Show me your budget and I’ll tell you what you value”

This week the Michigan House Democrats revealed their budget priorities for the year. In stark contrast to our far-right ideological Republicans and our corporatist Governor, the Democrats’ priorities reflect concern and care for middle class families, children and seniors. Their budget is a sincere reflection of their values. By the same token, Republicans show what they value as they work to eviscerate public education, demonize teachers and other public employees, raise taxes on the majority of middle class Michiganders and cut taxes for corporations by an astonishing $2 billion.

Get the details after the jump.

Is it still raining in Michigan?

As I have been telling folks for the past year, Republicans have raised the effective tax rates on more than half of all Michiganders in the past year. You’ll notice when you do your state taxes this year; many folks are already facing the reality that, instead of getting a refund like they always have in the past, they now OWE several hundred dollars to the State of Michigan. Get your checkbooks out, folks. SOMEBODY has to pay for nearly $2 billion in tax cuts for corporations and that somebody is YOU.

Meanwhile, as the tax coffers start to overflow a bit, Republicans are eager to sock some of it away into the Budget Stabilization Fund, otherwise known as the “Rainy Day Fund”. During the financial meltdown during the latter half of the Bush administration, Governor Granholm was forced to use that money to keep the state afloat. The fund now has a half billion dollars in it. The question many are asking is if we should put MORE money in it.

What do YOU think? Take our poll after the jump.

And as long as the “carried interest” loophole gives millionaire hedge fund managers a massive tax break, we have a revenue problem, too Tune in to Fox News for a few minutes and they’re bound to tell you what America’s problem is — as if they’re not it. The truth is we don’t have a spending problem, we have a […]

Let’s get some perspective on this, shall we?

One of the most widely prevalent myths being perpetrated on the right is that the federal budget should be seen as just a much larger version of a family budget. “American families are forced to live within their budget every day,” we’re told. “The federal government should do the same.”

Laura Clawson at Daily Kos has a marvelous piece up this morning that shows just how fail that argument is, mainly because it leaves out some very inconvenient truths about what our federal government looks like.

Her piece is titled “You want to compare the U.S. budget to a family budget? Let’s be real about it.” It stems from a piece making the rounds on Facebook that said it’s easier to look at the federal budget if you lop off eight zeros and then look at it like a family budget.

Much more after the Eclectacliff.

At least we know who they work for now — they’ve made that clear

House Republicans have released a counter-proposal to President Obama’s budget plan to avoid plunging us off the fiscal cliff speed bump. Unsurprisingly, it raises tax revenue but doesn’t allow the Bush tax cuts to expire. In fact, according to analysis by the Washington Post, it appears to lower taxes for the top tax bracket.

Details and more GOPocrisy and insanity after the jump.