Positive news from conference depresses GOP

If the Pistons loss in double overtime that put them on the brink of elimination didn’t place enough of a pall over the entire state, Michigan Republicans are even more depressed to hear the news coming out of the annual Detroit Regional Chamber Conference on Mackinac Island.

Subscription only Gongwers reports “A solid majority of business executives polled by the Detroit Regional Chamber believe that Michigan's business climate will be stronger in five years.”

Sad, sad news for Michigan Republicans who are so quick and so enjoy pointing out the state’s high unemployment rate, the foreclosure rate and lowered bond rates. They, of course, ignore the fact they are primarily responsible for the bond rating, the person in the White House has lost 3 million jobs by refusing to enforce trade agreements - most of those jobs from the largest employer in the state - and the unemployment rate was at double digits under a Republican governor. That’s when I left the state to join the military, but despite the GOP constantly running my state down, I’m staying. Isn’t sad that the Republicans are pulling against Michigan and bashing it just to get back the political power they lost?

“The poll was done of 211 senior-level executives by John Bailey & Associates for the Chamber, and 74 percent believed the business climate would be improved in five years.

I think it’s patriotic to question and criticize the government, but this constant Michigan bashing is just ridiculous. It’s like telling your wife you love her, but she’s fat, ugly and lazy.

If Republicans didn't need any more bad news, Gongwers says a report released at the conference says Michigan's three largest universities outperform some of the best-known university research systems in other states.
The study looking at the university research corridor was commissioned from Pat Anderson of Anderson Economic Group. Mr. Anderson said the three universities spend a total of $6.5 billion, which amounts to 2 percent of the state's total economic activity, and together account for $1.3 billion in research and development funding.
The total quantified earnings of all the alumni of the three universities living in Michigan is more than $24 billion.
The study compared the total spent by the Michigan universities on research to universities in Massachusetts (Harvard, MIT and Tufts), North Carolina (University of North Carolina, Duke and North Carolina State) and Pennsylvania (Carnegie Mellon, University of Pittsburgh and Pennsylvania State University), and Mr. Anderson said he was surprised to see that Michigan schools outspent the schools in those states.

Even more bad news for Republicans: Republican and Democratic leaders say they've reached a consensus on two tough items that have divided them in replacing the Single Business Tax.

Some Republicans even criticized Democrats for going to the conference; ignoring the fact that Republicans were there too. The biggest complainant was that the Democratic-controlled House did not hold session on Thursday to go to the conference in the face of the budget crises while the Republican-controlled Senate did. This, of course, ignored the fact that the House has held sessions on Monday where the Senate does not.

It also ignores the fact the Senate met for about 65 minutes on Thursday, and all but 10 minutes of that were spent listing to a Teddy Roosevelt look-alike give a speech he gave 100 years ago in the Senate chamber.