The Lansing Capitol Aviary: Peacocks Claiming to be Carrier Pigeons

Ignore the citizens & claim you know best how to govern without their participation: Snyder's Socialist "Central Planning" comes home to roost.

At least twice the Michigan Public said via polling by a 2 to 1 margin that they would accept and favor an increase in taxes to sustain the state and its many vital functions until this present economic distress passes. Never once did the Rick Snyder led TeaPublican majority respond or accept the will of the people -constituents they boast they represent and know best how to act on their behalf.

If a small increase of .3 to .5 percent increase in Michigan's income tax would have carried the state through the crisis that TeaPublicans egregiously and fraudulently used to put through a horrendous tax increase on the elderly, the poor, and pensioners.

The TeaPublicans are tone deaf to the cries of the unemployed-over a half a million Michigan workers without jobs and without prospects of jobs. These stone cold newbies and go-along remnants of former elections (being deathly afraid of being TP'ed in the next primary) have rolled-over to become lap dogs to extremism and paroxysms of anger and reprisal legislation.

A SIGNIFICANT "DEMOCRATIC" DEFICIT
In fact, the two profs uncovered a significant "democratic deficit":

"In Michigan, where the Governor's approval ratings hover at just over 32 percent as of August 2011, IT'S QUITE OBVIOUS THAT VOTERS ARE NOT AT ALL HAPPY WITH THE IDEOLOGY-BASED "FIXES" BEING IMPLEMENTED BY POLS. Lax and Phillips write, "[S]tates effectively translate majority opinion into policy only about half the time, a clear 'failing' grade on the congruence test. This is true even when majorities are large and when salience is high, which raises significant questions about the democratic performance of state government." This is certainly the case in Lansing, where POLICIES BEING IMPLEMENTED DO NOT represent THE RELATIVELY LIBERAL OPINIONS OF THE MAJORITY OF THE VOTERS."
(emphasis added)

SEE: "New Study Shows Michigan Ranks in Top 10 Among States in Which State and Local Politicos Ignore Public Opinion" by P.D. Lesko (As covered by A2Politico October 10, 2011 or READ the original REPORT).

PROMISED CUTS VERSUS FEATHERING THEIR OWN NESTS
The public wants to see the unrealistic ' bennies' of State legislators (serve 6 years in the legislature and get lifetime benefits) cut. So what actually happened ?

Tim Skubick reports:

"Whatever happened to the legislative mantra that all benefits for public workers be tied to those in the private sector where getting vested in six years is only a dream?

When the Michigan House took up this bill, THE MEASURE WOULD HAVE ENDED THIS BENEFIT FOR 109 OF THE 110 MEMBERS. In the state senate 32 of the 38 senators would have been exempted from the law. In other words they would keep their health care from the state until they turned 65.

Well a curious thing happened as the House measure moved around the capitol rotunda and arrived in the Upper Chamber a.k.a. the House of Lords or the state senate.

Instead of one representative keeping his benefits, the bill was changed to include 14. And instead of 32 senators, the number was kicked up to 36.

There must have been a reason for that and it was, MANY HOUSE AND SENATE FOLKS DIDN'T WANT TO LOSE WHAT THEY HAD, SO THEY WROTE THE BILL TO PROTECT THEMSELVES."
(emphasis added)

SEE: Tim Skubick in "Michigan Lawmakers Pull a Fast One on Health Care Benefits" October 11, 2011.

SO DOWN THOSE PEACOCK FEATHERS !

Original.