It was announced yesterday that Michigan’s unemployment rate for August rose to 9%. While a 0.2% increase from July's rate may seem minor, the pattern it is illustrating is not. August marks the third month in a row that unemployment has gone up in our state and the fourth month in a row that it did not go down.
Even as Michigan’s unemployment rate inches back upward, the national trend has seen unemployment go down which naturally begs the question: What happened to the windfall of jobs we were promised as Governor Snyder and our Republican legislature pushed through their misguided agenda over the past few years?
Michigan Republicans cut taxes for big corporations by nearly $2 billion with the promise of creating jobs while raiding our schools and taxing our seniors in order to do so. They cut the Personal Property Tax with no sound proposal for replacement revenue, swearing up and down that businesses would hire more workers with that extra money. And they told us that passing Right to Work and vilifying organized labor was supposed to flood our state with new companies and high-paying jobs.
Yet, here we are, looking at four straight months without a decrease in unemployment, and moving steadily in the wrong direction. The national economy is growing while Michigan’s economy is being left behind and, worst of all, there is no sense of urgency among my Republican colleagues to change course and finally do what’s necessary to create jobs and offer tangible relief for the people of Michigan.
While the citizens of this state continue to look for work, I've watched as my Republican colleagues in the Senate busied themselves with legislation that ranges from absurd to downright dangerous. They've squandered opportunities to attract jobs and talent to our state and recently went as far as delaying our newly expanded Medicaid program simply because it was associated with Obamacare. Unfortunately, their action will not only will keep our low-income earners from having access to healthcare, but will cost Michigan more than $600 million because they chose to play politics instead of doing the right thing.
I often wonder how my colleagues that have taken us down this path are able to look their constituents in the eye that remain struggling to find gainful employment and tell them that they're truly here in the Capitol working for them. I hear from people across the state every single day that are angry as they watch their Legislature working to help business leaders while ignoring our families. Meanwhile, Governor Snyder travels the globe, leaving his legislative agenda in disarray in the process, only to come home empty-handed.
At least his success rate has stayed constant.
So when is our supposedly metrics-driven Governor going to take a look at the metrics and see that his efforts have stalled—not jumpstarted—Michigan’s economic recovery effort?
Governor Snyder and Legislative Republicans like to tout that government should be run like a business, and they fooled the people of Michigan into thinking that that meant it would be run well. Instead, Michigan Republicans’ policies have further lined the pockets of the wealthy while Michigan’s middle class families are still looking for work. Our schools have been cut and our taxes have been raised, and the promise of jobs has fallen flat.
I urged my Republican colleagues today to take a long hard look at their economic policies, and an even longer and harder look at themselves, to see what they’re doing to Michigan. I implored them to have the courage to admit they were wrong, and the common sense to tackle real and effective job creation in Michigan.
Together, we can solve these problems, but only if they're ready to come to the table and work with us and work with the people of Michigan on a plan that puts families, not politics, first.
Gretchen Whitmer
Michigan Senate Democratic Leader