On February 18, 2010, Organizing for America (OFA), Health Care for American NOW! (HCAN) and no less than THIRTY other organizations sponsored a CALL FOR ACTION rally in Madison Heights in southeastern Michigan calling for Congress to act now on jobs for Michigan. These sponsoring groups represent a broad coalition of interests including health care reform, peace, immigration reform, clean energy and climate change prevention, jobs/labor, and social justice. There were about 350-400 people in attendance. This was just one of many such rallies being held across the country.
In the small chance you've been off the Tubes of the Internets for the last 48 hours, chances are you've heard a whole lot of noise about how the Senate Republicans slashed the state's Higher Education budget yesterday, which included the Michigan's Promise, the $4000 scholarship for Michigan students, which 96,000 students in our state receive and depend on.
As a geek, I love the online organizing tools -- but as a citizen, this is a great way to send a message that we won't stand for breaking Michigan's promise.
Minutes before the vote on many of amendments that attempted to restore the Michigan Promise Scholarship, Lt. Gov. John CHERRY, who was presiding over the Senate was sending out messages on Twitter telling his followers to use an online tool to write local newspapers to stress why cutting the scholarship was wrong.
Not too long after I saw the tweets from the Lt. Governor, I clicked on one and was taken to the website from A Whole Lot of People Supporting Cherry, his exploration committee, asking me to make sure our state is 'Keeping Our Promises' by visiting an entire section of his website to take action on this one singular issue.
Now that might not seem to extraordinary, but if you visit the page, you're apt to be a little more impressed. The page includes a You-Tube video, a petition to sign directed at the Senate Republicans, a link to the Facebook group for the issue, a link to a tool that allows you to automatically send a letter-to-the-editor about this particular issue (with suggested text), a "tell-a-friend" tool, and lastly a link to the news page with all of Cherry's press releases. From an online organizing/get-out-the-vote (GOTV) perspective, that's pretty sweet.
To be fair, the Senate Democrats have done an impressive job of also using some of these very same online tools to keep folks informed and engaged through their website, blog and Twitter, and Facebook accounts, and have one of the most active and updated YouTube channels, with over 75 videos to date.
On top of all of that, Cherry started using a new online petition tool, http://act.ly, the Twitter Petition, that just launched within the last 72 hours, to also drive the subject.
Obviously the Obama campaign set the bar pretty high last year for similar online action, but this early in the 2010 game it's pretty impressive.
As someone who makes monthly student loan payments equivalent to what some pay for a mortgage, I appreciate the fight that the leadership of Cherry and the Senate Democrats are taking on with this issue. As a giant geek, I think it's great to see public officials really grabbing this online technology by the horns and using it for a very worthy cause.
So there’s a lot of conversation out there about car dealerships being told they won’t be selling cars for Chrysler and GM any more.
The idea, we are told, is to save the auto manufacturers money by reducing the number of dealerships with whom they do business.
I don’t really know that much about the car business; and I really didn’t understand where these cost savings would come from, but I was able to have a conversation with the one person I do know who actually could offer some useful insight.
Follow along, Gentle Reader, and you’ll get a bit of an education at a time when we all need to know a bit more about these companies we suddenly seem to own...and about the closure of thousands of local businesses that will make the news about our bad job market worse.
(What did YOU do on Earth Day? - promoted by LiberalLucy)
Even though 70% of the Earth is covered in water, only 3% is fit for human consumption -- and two-thirds of that is frozen! Here in Michigan, we're fortunate to have access to the Great Lakes, containing 22% of the world's fresh surface water. That means we have a special obligation to protect our waterways -- but also a special opportunity to be the global center of transformative economic possibilities based around water.
Yesterday, for Earth Day, I announced the "Green Jobs for Blue Waters Initiative" to target opportunities for economic growth and environmental protection centered around our most precious resource: water. By developing new technologies to conserve water here in Michigan, we can export those technologies around the globe to places where water is far more scarce: helping Michigan's economy and global environmental protection. Michigan can, and will be the place where the water technologies of the future are developed, thanks to our access to the Great Lakes, university research, water management experience, advanced manufacturing capabilities, and our strong history of environmental stewardship. We can create the same sort of dynamic based around a Blue Water Economy that we've started to build in alternative energy here, with component manufacturers and researchers flocking to set up shop here in Michigan, diversifying our economy, creating jobs, and helping our environment.
We’ve heard it all before: President X proposes Y and Z in his (or hers – future tense, people), and sometimes even A in the proposed budget. But what we haven’t heard before, however, is words of encouragement from a leader who actually seems like he might be on the level.
Obviously, we’re talking about President Obama, and more specifically, referencing his proposed 2010 budget. In this landmark document, the prez has allotted significant funding for little things like, oh, let’s see, health care reform, job creation, new energy investment, and tax cuts for the middleclass. It’s the usual stuff, but it’s done in the most unusual way: with a certain degree of transparency, Obama has allowed the American people to see just exactly how the budget is going to work and to understand the very specific ways in which they will be helped by the programs the budget is set to cover.
Now, we probably don’t need to explain why these things would be so important for Michigan. Here in the Great Lakes state, it’s almost beyond debatable that we’ve suffered more under the economic downturn than almost anyone else. Our foreclosure rate is through the roof, “record high unemployment” is starting to become a staple phrase of any and all local TV, and our health care system is little more than an unfunny joke to millions of struggling Michigan families.
And that’s why this groundbreaking budget could not come at a better time for us. More now than ever, Michigan needs the helping hand – the life preserver, if you will – that it can find in President Obama’s budget.
However, in order for this proposal to transition from paper to reality, several things need to happen, but one in particular takes the form of Senator Debbie Stabenow. It goes without saying that Sen. Stabenow has been a longtime advocate of the president’s. She is also an esteemed member of the Senate Budget Committee, and ergo holds the ability to move Obama’s budget along to fruition.
So, there you have it. In order for Michigan to start reaping the sows of this historic proposal, we need one of our best voices in Washington to speak up and take action. You can do as much today – urge Sen. Stabenow to speak out, that is – by going to http://progressmichigan.org/obamabudget.
Time, as usual, is of the essence. Speak out today, and tell Sen. Stabenow to support Obama’s budget through the Senate Budget Committee! The hardworking people of Michigan are counting on you.
Michigan has some of the hardest-working residents in the country. Unfortunately, our state has fallen on hard times. Michigan has the highest unemployment rate in the nation, and our state is struggling with the loss of hundreds of thousands of manufacturing jobs.
There are some things we cannot control. Global trade agreements, outsourcing and federal policies have all played a role in getting us where we are. But what we can - and must - do is control some of the local factors influencing Michigan's jobs picture.
An example is in the awarding of state contracts and state tax breaks and incentives. When Michigan tax dollars are used to create jobs, Michigan workers should have first priority in getting those jobs. Our tax dollars should benefit our own working families - not out-of-state - workers or illegal immigrants.
That is where the Hire Michigan First plan comes in.
The Hire Michigan First plan gives companies that hire more workers from Michigan priority in getting state tax breaks and economic development incentives. The more Michigan workers a company hires, the more likely it is to receive a state contract or state tax incentives.
Second, the plan requires companies that accept state economic development incentives to report who they are hiring. When the state gives incentives to businesses, we want to see that they are using those incentives to get our workers back on the job. The reporting requirement adds accountability and transparency to this state funding process.
Third, Hire Michigan First requires that companies that build state buildings hire 100 percent of their workers from Michigan. Our workers are more than ready and able to do these jobs, and they should have the opportunity to do so.
And fourth, the plan cracks down on companies that knowingly hire illegal immigrants. Those companies will have their tax incentives and state contracts cancelled. They will have to pay back any incentives they already received and they will be barred from getting future state contracts.
My number one priority in Lansing is creating good-paying jobs for our workers. We must make sure Michigan tax dollars go into our workers' paychecks, not to workers from other states and countries. And by supporting our workers, we will strengthen our economy and get Michigan back on track.
Readers of the Michigan progressive blogosphere are probably familiar with FarLeftField, a small blog that focuses on the issue of labor and the economy here in Michigan. It's written by a good friend of mine, and one of the strongest advocates of organized labor and the auto industry that I've had the pleasure of knowing over the last couple of years, Mike Huerta.
If you watched CNN on the tv or checked out CNN.com, chances are you've read about Mike and local Saturn dealership owner, Sherrill Freeborough and how their lives, and the lives of so many of us in the Lansing area and across Michigan have been affected by the economic collapse of the Auto Industry.
CNN's John King was in town last week, and had the opportunity to speak with both Mike and Freeborough about what life is like for them, and how it's been for most of the rest of us. Check out the story and video here, and be sure to catch the choice words that Mike has for those Southern Republicans who'd like nothing more than to see us all fail.
There's been a bit of hypocrisy going on in our State Senate for quite a while now. Holding a majority by only three seats, the Senate Republicans currently have an additional $100,000 extra than their Democratic colleagues in their budgets for whatever they'd like. Staff, office furniture, salaries, donuts, whatever.
For as long as I can remember, the Republicans theme song has been slash, burn and cut, and as of late, they've been asking state employees to continue to give more and more up, while they continue to live high on the hog.
But don't take it from me. Listen to Sen. Gretchen Whitmer of East Lansing who today offered Senate Republicans the opportunity to literally put their money where their mouths have been. Check out her floor statement below, and as far as a teaser...let's just say in some parts of the state, it could be taken as a real butt-kicking, and that's being polite.
I just spent an interesting 30 minutes or so looking at the voting records of the MI Congressional delegation.
If Dave Camp, Vern Ehlers, Pete Hoekstra or Fred Upton represent your district, be sure to ask -- loud and often -- how they can square their votes in favor of the $700 bank bailout , with their votes against the economic stimulus package.
protect[s] Michigan schools, universities and health care providers from deep budget cuts. Also of significance, it also provides $1 billion in new Medicaid health care for the unemployed and their children in a state with a 10.6-percent unemployment rate. There's $1 billion for road construction.
Ask Dave, Vern, Pete and Fred why they think it's more important to throw money at the financial industry -- with no oversight and no accountability, with $87,000 carpets and corporate jets -- than to help unemployed Americans or rebuild our infrastructure.
Ask them why their much-vaunted sense of "fiscal responsibility" doesn't extend to Michigan families who are desperately trying to keep their jobs and their homes.
Republicans on the state Senate Appropriations Committee seemed to welcome all the federal cash coming Lansing's way. Sen. Tom George of Kalamazoo, who has formed an exploratory committee to run for governor in 2010, said Michigan was deserving of even more given the state's disproportionate loss of jobs this decade.
Today as the Senate debated repealing the Michigan Business Tax Surcharge, Senate Democrats made a push to add legislation that would keep homeowners facing foreclosure from losing their homes: http://tinyurl.com/caaxoc. Senator Buzz Thomas (D- Detroit) proposed adding a package of bills to the MBT surcharge repeal that includes placing a moratorium on foreclosures, allowing struggling homeowners to stay in their homes and make reduced payments until they can get back on their feet.
These foreclosure bills ( http://tinyurl.com/b8hujf ) were originally introduced early 2008 by Senator Hansen Clarke (D-Detroit) and were sent to the Senate Committee on Banking and Financial Institutions where they did not receive a hearing. This legislation would also help those whose landlords are going into foreclosure by giving them a 90 day notice and also requiring the new owner to hold to the terms of the tenants lease.
Foreclosure rates are continuing to hurt Michigan's economy and during these tough times, this crisis can be stabilized by implementing this legislation as stated by Senator Clarke: http://tinyurl.com/c5qc49. By tie barring foreclosure protection legislation to the MBT Surcharge repeal Senate Democrats hoped to tackle two of Michigan's largest problems: jobs and foreclosures. Although the motion to attach foreclosure protections to the repeal failed on a party line vote, Senate Democrats will continue their fight to keep people in their homes and continue to push legislation that will help do just that.
(Excellent points below the fold. - promoted by ScottyUrb)
Now that President Obama has been in office for nearly a week, it’s time to get the ball rolling on that economic stimulus plan. With a planned vote in Congress that could take place as early as this week, it’s become more imperative than ever that we here in the Great Lakes join together with the voices of the nation in support of the proposed $825 billion economic recovery package, especially after watching our own economy tailspin downward while our jobless rate topped record highs of 10.6%. With billions promised to help improve the state of our roads, health care, and jobs: in fact, the unemployed and taxpayers could build a cutting-edge clean energy economy, making the passage of the economic stimulus plan absolutely critic to us in Michigan.
We need President Obama and the members of Congress to step in and fight for our economic future. Unfortunately (or, perhaps, tragically), some members of Congress think we should keep doing the same thing – tax cuts for the wealthy – that got us into this mess. To derail the stimulus, the right-wing whack jobs have started spreading myths and rumors. It’s time we all caught up to the latest misinformation from the right and corrected them. Here are some corrections to the myths you might hear about the proposed stimulus package, courtesy of thinkprogress.org:
With the entire state seemingly up in arms after last week's flipping of the bird by the Republican U.S. Senate, the fallout got me thinking about what lies ahead for the coming electoral cycle.
Never before have I seen such a complete and total unified reaction from Democrats, independents, media, and even Republicans on one singular state issue. Sure there were a couple exceptions, like those being fed the GOP talking points like mother's milk, but as we so quickly learn in politics, rational logic doesn't necessarily have to apply to all of us.
With the news this morning that Pete 'Turtlegate' Hoekstra won't seek re-election in two years in the 2nd Congressional District and is still mulling a run for governor (how many years has he been mulling that?) and Markos' thoughts on the subject, it got me thinking.
How might the ramifications of the Senate Republican vote play out electorally for our state over the next two years?
There aren't any major elections for another two years, but a vote this large that affects essentially an entire state is not likely to be forgotten anytime soon. And the case was cut and dried, so there's no mistaking precisely who the perpetrators are.
Will we see local Republican candidates run against the actions of their congressional party members, or will we see them delicately two-stepping their way through a messy minefield? How are Republican gubernatorial candidates going to handle it without jumping party ship?
I've spent the last 18 hours trying to figure out how to verbalize the rage, the frustration, and the deep sadness I feel after the asinine vote by the Senate Republicans in Congress that killed the auto industry bailout. And then I saw this quote by Lt. Gov. Cherry that seemed pretty spot on -
"We are witnessing Congressional unraveling of the American Dream and the demolition of the very foundation of our national security. A few beltway insiders who are completely out of touch with the struggles of American families decided to settle old political scores at the expense of millions of jobs and our national economic security. While bankers get the keys to the Treasury our manufacturers get a one-way ticket to bankruptcy and American families are left unprotected."
Last time I checked, the United States included Michigan, although with the way we've been slapped and kicked around in DC, you wouldn't know it.
If only Congress were as sharp and cared as much about working families as we do, they'd realize what letting the Big Three fail really means: not being able to retire, not being able to have health care, not being able to put food on the table - not being able to enjoy even a hope of achieving the American Dream.
These aren't just "workers". Every time I hear this topic discussed on the airwaves, I wonder how many people truly understand that these "workers" are actually people like my dad, my aunt, my neighbor, your friend, even you. Do they get that there are actual people behind this very in-personal collective group term, also used to describe honeybees and ants??
We owe American workers, who had nothing to do with the onset of the economic crisis or the strategy of auto management, the benefits and pay they agreed to, and we owe it to them to fight for their jobs and well-being.
Do Senate Republicans know what it's like to lose a job for no reason other than credit markets seizing up? We bailed out the financial institutions that got us into this crisis with much less rancor than providing much less money in a LOAN, not a bailout, to one of our most important manufacturing industries.
And has Congress been to Michigan lately? Have they seen the job losses we've already suffered, and the pain workers have already faced as the Big Three restructure?
Growing up in the Metro Detroit area, there were good times, and then there were tough times, but my family still managed to always have Christmas that included plenty to eat and gifts under the tree.
Some years, that required my dad to work three jobs and my mom to work two, not to mention raising three kids, one of which was chronically ill (me) often times paying up to 25 different medical bills a month. Somehow we always got by, and now as adult, I can only imagine the financial juggling act that occurred with a mortgage, car lease, bills, groceries and the like.
After he was laid off from the Buick plant in the late 80's, my dad took on a side job as a pizza delivery man to help supplement the family's income. As a pre-teen, I remember being a little embarrassed seeing my dad don the company hat and come home smelling like a pizza oven. I'll never forget my mother admonishing me, "Be proud that your father is able to work and support his family, that's more than some people can do." I had really never thought about it like that before, too young to understand how dire the circumstances actually were.
This year is on track to be one of the toughest years for most Michigan families, including my own in the last 50 years. My mom starts her new job today, after being unemployed for the better part of the year, while my dad tries to not let the frustration of his own unemployment get the best of him. In addition, I have an uncle and an aunt who are also both without jobs, and my own sister walks into her job each day uncertain if she will be included in the latest round of lay-offs.
Even with all this, my family is among the lucky few this holiday. When Christmas Day arrives, there will be gifts under the tree, and there will be food on the table, but certainly not to the extent there was in years past. Instead of everyone getting gifts for everyone else, we're drawing names. We're cutting back on the type of food and the quantity we're serving, and clipping coupons and checking sale ads before making any purchases.
A recent report from the Michigan Non-Profit Association shows a dramatic increase in the demand for support, while financial and in-kind support for these same organizations has dropped significantly. The reasons will come as no surprise to any of us: the economy, fuel costs, foreclosure rates, and cuts to the state budget.
Al Norman has a great column tearing apart Walmart for issuing a press release titled, "Wal-Mart Backs Main Street." Some Walmart PR hack must have thought, "'Main Street' is a great buzz word right now for suffering communities; let's say we support them."
The only problem is that Main Street is suffering BECAUSE of Walmart. Sure, the Bentonville behemoth might be saving consumers a couple of bucks on some Chinese-made plastic toy that is destined to break.
But, let's take a look at the high cost of those low prices.
((From my remarks "The Blue Economy - Great Lakes Protection and Michigan's Economic Transformation" delivered at the Federal Reserve Bank's symposium on Fresh Water and the Great Lakes Economic Future, 11/10/08)
I come to this discussion today, obviously, as the Lieutenant Governor of THE Great Lakes state and as the immediate past chair of the Great Lakes Commission.
But just as importantly, underlying all that, is the personal connection I feel to Michigan’s water and woods. As an upland hunter and person who enjoys spending time on the water, I understand the attraction that our amazing natural resources have to people all across the Midwest. I recognize the tremendous impact that Michigan’s water has on the course of their lives and our local economies.
So it is important today, as we focus on big ideas and broad concepts, that we also remain mindful of the profound impact our work and discussions can have on a family, a town, or one tiny stretch of pristine beach somewhere on our shoreline.
Nov. 9 (Bloomberg) -- Rahm Emanuel, President-elect Barack Obama's chief of staff, called the auto industry an ``essential'' part of U.S. manufacturing, while stopping short of endorsing a proposal to use some of the $700 billion financial-rescue fund to aid automakers.
``The auto industry is an essential part of our economy,'' Emanuel said on ABC's ``This Week.'' Lawmakers should speed up the availability of $25 billion in government loans for the development of fuel-efficient cars, he said.
In addition, there are ``other authorities'' the administration can use immediately and Obama ``has asked his economic team to look at different options of what it takes to help bridge the auto industry so they are a part of not only a revived economy, but part of an energy policy going forward.''
Good god Gertie! WE finally have a President in our White House.
Released pre-market open, Ford announced that it experienced a larger-than-expected loss of $1.31 per share for the quarter, and that it will be cutting 10% of its North American workforce.
Analysts had expected a loss of $0.94 a share, as well as a lower cash burn rate than Ford is reporting.
(This is one of the many reasons I blog - to share and read personal stories about how the (in)actions of those in DC and Lansing affect ordinary people. - promoted by ScottyUrb)
For the record, I was against the bailout. I wrote a handful of emails to my Representative, John Dingell and both Senator Stabenow and Senator Levin. I made phone calls begging for them to vote against the bailout. I was convinced that sending almost a trillion dollars to some of the very people that got us into this mess was a very bad idea. I firmly believe then, and still do now that the only real way to help Wall Street is to conduct criminal investigations and do something to kick them of the bad habits they got adicted to (like trading and inflating the price of the complex economic devices that got us in this jam). I wrote to the Obama campaign asking that he not vote for the bailout. In the end, as we all know, my efforts were futile and the bailout passed.
I'd like to think that I know a little about hard economic times. I was born in Louisiana in the early 1980s where my father worked as a helicopter mechanic for PHI. In 1985 we moved to Michigan when the oil company ran into hard times and my father was forced to look elsewhere for work. He came to work for General Motors as a mechanic for their corporate helicopter and airplanes at Metro Airport.
For the first few years, we rented as we had difficulty selling our house down in Louisiana. With the economy is turmoil, it was nearly impossible to find a buyer for the decently-sized house of which we were the original owners. In the end, we sold the house back to the bank and lost about $30,000 on the deal.
In my childhood here in Michigan I grew up in a typical middle-class household. In addition to my father's work at GM, we had some income from my mother who worked as a preschool administrator and a Head Start director in a poor school district, before finally finding the job she's held for over a decade as a second grade teacher. We weren't rich, but there was always food on the table. I would later come to realize how hard my parents worked, and how much they sacrificed so that my little sister and I always had what we needed. We might have had hand-me-down clothes from cousins and I might have had a job since I was 14 to help offset bills and expenses, but I never knew the fear of losing our home.
While McCain is focusing on running a class-warfare campaign, Obama is staying focused on "inane" issues - such as doing something about the economic crisis and developing a detailed plan on how to help hurting families.
Today, in Blue Collar headquarters, Obama is unveiling a new economic plan targeted at working families, the recently unemployed, and what's left of our struggling manufacturing industry. In my opinion, this plan is bold enough - and wide-ranging enough - to actually be able to make a difference.
With GM today announcing even MORE plant closings in Wisconsin, I think this plan pretty much seals the deal for swing voters in Michigan, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. Below are some of the details of Obama’s plan.
• Immediately add an additional $25 billion to help automakers retool plants and jump-start production.
• Implement a temporary tax credit for 2009 and 2010 for companies that add jobs in the United States. Existing businesses would receive a $3,000 refundable tax credit for each additional full-time employee hired.
• Eliminate capital gains taxes on investments made in small businesses and start-up businesses.
• Make $25 billion available immediately for infrastructure projects.
• Cut taxes for 95% of workers and their families, plus seniors.
• Extend unemployment insurance benefits for another 13 weeks.
• Allow penalty-free hardship withdrawals from retirement accounts and 401(k) accounts this year and next. The plan would call for withdrawals of up to 15% of an account up to $10,000 without penalty. It could also be applied retroactively.
• Allow seniors to delay required withdrawals from 401(k) accounts and individual retirement accounts.
• Allow bankruptcy judges to modify terms of mortgages on primary residences.
• Enact a 90-day foreclosure moratorium for financial institutions that participate in the congressional bailout plan.
So, critics will ask if this will solve all of our problems? Probably not. But is it a huge step in the right direction - showing that we have a future leader who actually cares about regular people? Definitely!
