 It's Day 5 and the news just keeps getting worse. There's presently a real rumble in the House, and if you had any doubts as to who is fighting for you in Lansing, one only need listen to the speeches by this state's public servants.
It's clear along Party lines who is for you and who is for the wealthy, the special interest, and the powerful, or in other words, that 1% of the state's 10 million citizens.
And if that doesn't send you a wake-up call, grab your tissue as you read this heart-breaking email from one state employee -
I work for the state and I am traumatized by the thought of not getting a paycheck. When I was told on Wednesday that I might not get paid the first week in October I almost broke down in tears, and couldn't sleep that night. I'm not going to complain and say that I don't make enough money, but I will say that my salary is nothing to brag about, and it forces me to live paycheck to paycheck.
I don't know what I'll do, because I'm not going to be able to pay my bills. I already have a hard time making sure that I eat 3 times a day and that I have gas money. If we shut down, I'll probably have to start eating 1x a day like I did back in college, and I probably won't be driving anywhere.
I wonder if Mike Bishop knows what it is like to not know where you're going to get your next meal from, and if he has ever not had to pay a bill because his paycheck didn't provide him the means to cover all of his expenses. I think if his family wasn't able to afford their groceries or mortgage payment, he might actually try a little harder to get something done. Instead he wants to take away everything that state employees have, because somehow we are overcompensated.
If we shut down, I will be forced to get a second job, which is something that I have already been considering for awhile. I don't know what I'll do if we really shut down. So Mike, how do you respond to that? And to the Republican State Representatives, can you still at your podium and preach the wonders about excess and waste of the state government?
As Rep. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit) just mentioned on the House floor, by way of Woodrow Wilson "If you're always worried about re-election, you'll never get re-elected."
Time to get to work on behalf of the People, not on behalf of the privileged and special-interest. |
