Reform Michigan Government Now
I've written about the Reform Michigan Government Now ballot initiative here and here. This thing ranges between a joke and a hideous, underhanded, stealth attempt by the Democrats to virtually overthrow Republican control of anything.
Now, The Mackinaw Center has a new article out regarding the "savings" and "downsizing" that the Demoscums claim will happen with passage of the initiative. Bottom line:
"In sum, while the proposal takes comparatively significant bites from the judicial and legislative arms of state government, the executive branch gets off scot-free. However, the executive is where the real money is, which is why big changes in the other two branches make so little difference in overall government spending.
The bottom line is that at most RMGN would save each Michigan resident just 4 pennies a week. Even if one ignores recently revealed insider documents explaining that the measure’s real purpose is to prevent future "budget cuts," these savings amount to little more than a rounding error in the $42.9 billion state budget — a spending reduction of less than one-twentieth of 1 percent."
The real bottom line is that, once again, Democrats are steeped in lying, deception and fraud because they know that if they came out and said what they really wanted or believe they would get run out of town - not out of the unions or governments, but out of town...
I would offer a even darker motivation for the RMGN petition than those already circulating. While popular legislative pay cuts and other miscellany serve as an obvious loss leader to the masses, and redistricting serves as a justum bellum for unions and partisan democrats, there is a cleverly obscured truth behind the overly comprehensive measure; its underlying purpose is to effect de facto Tort Reform. The Michigan Trial Attorneys and Mark Brewer already know about it, and you may have figured it out. First the alliance; Brewer is obsessed with the Michigan Supreme Court, and Cliff Taylor, and so are most of the would-be Personal Injury lawyers now scrambling to eek out a living, eating scraps off the Bernstein table, or churning "actual attorney fee" lemon law and Fair Debt Collection Practices Act cases. Clearly, Governor Engler's legacy left a solid majority of (former) insurance industry advocates in control of the Supreme Court. This has devastated plaintiff's recoveries in Michigan, and will continue to do so until "something is done".
So, since it costs $10 million to (maybe) unseat one justice, and since it takes at least two and maybe three justices to swing the pendulum back toward plaintiffs cases, this proposal is a perfect opportunity for Trial Lawyers use cheaper non-profit campaign dollars to engage citizen initiative "lobbying" to literally eliminate the positions of two opposition justices without spending a dime of hard campaign money, and to spend the hard money on a weakened Cliff Taylor, and achieve de facto tort reform in Michigan. Trial lawyers know that they could never pass substantive pro-plaintiff tort reform in the current rarefied atmosphere of Michigan politics, especially when the Insurers can bring such massive forces to bear to maintain their advantage. Trial Lawyers also know that the "investment" in this proposal would be recouped through attorney fees in just a handful of the doomed cases in the trial and appellate systems right now, not to mention the perfectly meritorious causes of action rotting on the vine as a result of the chilling effect that the Court's dramatic reversals in no-fault and "open and obvious" jurisprudence have caused.
So, since the Democrats are desperate to game redistricting, and the people are in a generally foul mood, the trial attorneys saw they could effect tort reform and no one would ever know it. They support liberals and liberal causes anyway, so who is to prove they are behind this when their financial presence in the campaign is consistent, though larger than usual, in this election cycle. I can't prove it, and offer considered opinions only; all I have is circumstantial evidence which is easily shouted down in the court of public opinion. And when the August 10th filing date rolls around, the people will learn a big fat zero from the Campaign Finance disclosures. A series of obscure 501(c)4 corporations, funded in turn by some 501(c)3 corporations
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The bigger question you should be asking is why is the Michigan Chamber of Commerce funding the lawsuit against the RMGN proposal? Why have state justices held unethical secret meetings to decide the fate of this proposal and decidedly let the Chamber be the front on this?
The state courts are about to set a very dangerous precedent which will kill a citizens right to file ballot initiatives or referendum. The course they are on will ultimately strip away one of our constitutional rights without ever having been voted on by the people of Michigan.
How can the Chamber justify using the funds of their members to shoot down a proposal which could finally fix Michigan's broken government and help the business climate? How can the Chamber deny Michigan voters their right to decide on the proposal issue for themselves? After all, nearly 500,000 registered voters signed a petition.
Please, before you go bashing those that are trying to affect serious reform to our broken government, read the non-partisan RMGN proposal and consider the words of Prof. Ballard when he rightfully called Michigan's government a "partisan cesspool". Its time to reduce that partisanship and rancor, and get Michigan back to its former greatness.
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