The road repair “plan” passed by the Michigan legislature this week has been touted as raising $452 million in the first year with the full $1.2 billion not kicking in until 2021. However, that “first year” is actually not until 2017. And, according to some great reporting by Chad Livengood at The Detroit News, we now know that, as soon […]

House Speaker Kevin Cotter took to the House floor last night to tell us all that they have kicked the can down the road too far on road funding and, by golly, it’s time to get this done. Then he said something that is the most blatant exhibition Orwellian Newspeak that I’ve seen in some time: This is a plan […]

The picture above is a screenshot of a Detroit Free Press article published yesterday. In the article, Gov. Snyder paints on an optimistic smile and says he’s confident that there is “strong momentum” for something getting done on road funding, despite a half decade of failed efforts on his part and on the part of his Republican colleagues in the […]

Governor Snyder persists in his feelgood announcements about Michigan job growth, but he does hedge his enthusiasm because too many of us observe the realities of what is now passing as “job growth.” Yes, reality rains on Snyder’s parade every time. Most of those non-automotive jobs are low paying part time jobs that keep people zigzagging back and forth across […]

The summer of 2015 will go down in the annals of Michigan history as a time when the Republican in our state displayed an complete and utter lack of leadership. Don’t forget that the GOP controls literally every level of government of significance – and have for the past five years – so this abject failure is theirs and theirs […]

See that red line? That’s Donald Trump. His argle-babble about immigrants (who commit crimes at a lower rate than any ethnic group) has led to him being dumped by Univision, NBC, Macy’s and now Serta. Trump’s reputation is now so bad that businesses want nothing to do with him and Republicans do. It’s important to not read too much into […]

During his presidential campaign announcement this week, Donald Trump proudly declared that he would build a “great, great wall” on the border between the United States of America and Mexico because they “are sending people that have lots of problems, and they are bringing those problems to us. They are bringing drugs, and bringing crime, and their rapists.” This outreach […]

For the many of us who watch and participate in democracy on a daily basis, this past week was perhaps the most damaging and disheartening week for Michigan in many, many years. Yes, I said years. It is clear that the Republican agenda – their “in your face” agenda – is clearly working for them, even though their agenda is […]

This week the Michigan Legislature passed House Bill 4041, what they call the Parental Responsibility Act. Gov. Snyder is probably eager to sign it because it has the word “responsibility” in it and impacts only the politically powerless. The Michigan Department of Human Services will be required to eliminate cash assistance to poor families if any child in the household […]

A new report from the Urban Institute details what every honest adult already knows: Obamacare is the most successful new government program since Medicare and Medicaid. In states that have fully implemented the law, the uninsured population has been cut in half. Tens of millions of Americans have been covered and about 14 million of them were uninsured before. Health […]

With all of the insanity in Michigan’s legislature these days with people like Cindy Gamarat and Todd Courser, I thought it would be a nice break to show that we’re not the only state with Republicans that are … um … “different”. Today I present you with Michele Fiore, a Republican member of the Nevada state assembly. Fiore has a […]