I wish you all could be fired.

Due to a bunch of retards in elected office, the Michigan government was shut down for a few hours on.... I forget the day. It doesn't really matter. But the government was shut down because the legislature could not balance the budget which is constitutionally mandated. At the last minute Acting well after time was the up, to plug up the budget hole, our leaders have decided to raise our taxes. Yay! Income tax rate is increasing from 3.9% to 4.35% immediately--that is, with your next paycheck. The 6% sales tax is getting expanded to include services such as astrology readings, coin-operated machinery, house sitting, personal shopping, bathroom services (sorry Sen. Craig you might want to skip DTW), transit services, dating services, escort services (sorry Sen. Vitter you'll have to keep to LA and DC), balloon-o-grams, and--here's a shocker--skiing. Golf was conveniently left out of the expanded services list. Well, we wouldn't want to burden the old, rich, white guys now would we? The new sales tax goes into effect this December.

Also making the news was the fact that the government decided to cut health benefits for state workers, particularly teachers. Guess whose benefits remained untouched? Oh, yes... the legislators who only need to put in 6 years of work to get their health care premiums covered for life unlike teachers who under the old system had to work 30. Now teachers get a graduated plan up to 30 years for only 90% coverage instead of full. Thank you Republicans for demonstrating the fine sense of fairness you want to instill in others.

Depending on who you ask, this tax increase makes Michigan's tax-burden the 11th (Tax Foundation) or 22nd (Michigan--oh and don't you just trust their assessment) highest in the nation. Michigan lies around average when it comes to her neighbors. We're lower than Ohio, about the same as Indiana, and higher than Illinois--with the exception of Chicago in which case their burden is like a gazillion times higher.

Well, if you thought it was bad before with citizens and business moving out of the state...

Yup, Colorado is looking pretty nice right about now.

Way to go guys!

Vote Green. Vote Libertarian. Vote Socialist. Write in your grandmother. Sign the recall petition. Pick someone else.