“This is the budget we have, but not the budget we need. It is a budget I don’t agree with and don’t support.” To which I wanted to say, What do you mean? You just signed it. You are responsible for this. And we now will suffer the consequences.
In a sense, the above, milder version, reminds me of one of history’s most infamous moments, when British Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain sold out Czechoslovakia for what he said would be “peace in our time.” Winston Churchill then growled, “England has been offered a choice between war and shame.”
“She has chosen shame. She will get war,” later. That is, of course, exactly what happened back in 1938. What our governor is apparently arguing in 2009 is this: She had to choose between signing a terrible budget and ruining the state.
But she has chosen to do both. With this budget our lawmakers have betrayed our hope for a better future. What we have witnessed is an absolute failure of political will and leadership.
Our state’s lawmakers have passed a budget that ignores the changing economy of Michigan, and our needs. In a world where our only hope is better education, our leaders have voted to make sure more public schools fail. In a world where higher education is Michigan’s only hope to again become competitive, and the younger generation’s only hope for a future, our lawmakers have betrayed a promise they made to help 96,000 students with college tuition.
He left out the sick punch line ... things turned out as they did not just out of political cowardice, but to further the political aspirations of the Senate Majority Leader, who himself is running a nearly hopeless campaign to capture his party's nomination for attorney general.
