The election of Rick “Chief Executive Outsourcer” Snyder as Michigan Governor may signal a new way of campaigning, but his choice to head his transition team appears to be politics as usual and he finally admitted government can’t be run like a business.
His campaign proved that you don’t have to debate your opponents or talk to the voters, just have the most money to run TV ads as early and as often as possible, but government is still government.
On Wednesday he met with Governor Granholm, and he announced the members of his transition team. Doug Rothwell will chair the transition team, according to subscription only Gongwer. Joining him as vice-chairs will be his wife, Sharon Rothwell, and Meijer Corporation President Mark Murray. All three were top officials in the administration of former Republican Governor John Engler, who left the state with the current budget mess eight years ago.
Doug Rothwell is the now president of the Business Leaders of Michigan (BLM), a coalition of so-called business leaders. In their alleged "turnaround plan" they advocate for the 2-cent tax on services. He was also president and CEO of the Michigan Economic Development Corporation (MEDC), something many conservatives say they want to abolish.
Murray was both state budget director and treasurer under Engler. He is currently the president at Meijer's that was fined $190,000 in 2008 for its violation of campaign law by trying to influence an election in Acme, a village outside Traverse City, by illegally funding front groups. However, this past election proved they don’t have to do that anymore.
In his first press conference where he announced his transition team, Snyder debunked the very reason so many people voted for him and said what Democrats and fellow Republican primary opponents have been saying for almost a year: that government cannot he run like a business.
According to Gongwer, “Mr. Snyder rejected the idea that government would be run like a business, saying businesses and government are different entities.”
Exactly.
Snyder did float the plan to balance the state budget with a projected $1.6 billon deficit with the meaningless corporate buzz-word called “value-based budgeting” that no one knows what he is talking about.
3 comments:
Those blue collar folks that voted for Snyder and the Republicans are going be in for a shock when they discover their first budget is going to be balance on their backs.
I posted a story from Think Progress a few months ago detailing what get slash in newly elected Republican governors' budget and guess what they are Guru's right wing trolls programs you depend on. The elite in that state get more breaks while they balance the budget by cutting state workers pay, education funding and social programs.
True. One big reason he won is that Democrats stayed home on Tuesday. I wish I had a dime for every time somebody told me they were voting for the outsourcer because government needs to be run like a business. Now, the outsourcer admits that’s a talking point.
Government run like a business huh? Didn't we hear that when a certain governor from Texas was running for president ten years ago? I guess some people will never learn.
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