Former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm has yet to start teaching her new Cal-Berkeley course on green governing — but she already has a devoted student in the White House.
President Obama’s State of the Union speech Tuesday night was eerily similar to the failed economic vision that Granholm laid out in her State of the State address exactly five years ago: It even included her rhetorical ruse substituting “investments” for “spending.”
“If the states are the laboratories of democracy,” Granholm wrote in the Huffington Post last December, “Washington can take a lesson from what is happening in Michigan.” Sadly for the nation, Obama listened to his teacher.
“We need a moon shot,” said Granholm in the Huffington Post. “This is our Sputnik moment,” echoed the president on Tuesday. Granholm envisioned a transformation of Michigan from “Rust Belt to Green Belt” with massive, European-style public investments in infrastructure and alternative energy. “In five years, you’ll be blown away,” she predicted, in what would become her signature line.
It was, in fact, thousands of state jobs that were blown away, as Granholm’s vision diverted pols’ attention from much-needed reforms to the state’s budget and business climate. Since her speech in 2006, the state’s unemployment rate has skyrocketed from 7.4 percent to 11.4.
Now Obama wants to take the Granholm model national. “The 21st Century Jobs Fund [is] the largest investment in diversifying our economy this state has ever seen,” said Granholm in her 2006 SOS. “It’ll create tens of thousands of new jobs. We’ll invest more than $2 billion in public and private funds to develop new sectors of our economy: Advanced manufacturing. Homeland security and defense. Life sciences. Alternative energy.”
“We’ll invest in biomedical research, information technology, and especially clean-energy technology — an investment that will strengthen our security, protect our planet, and create countless new jobs for our people,” mimicked Obama in this year’s SOTU.
Like Granholmnomics, Obamanomics is not only unsustainable — it diverts important investment dollars from the private sector. Welcome to Michigan, America.
After living through 8 years of Granholm, I have to say this article is right on the money.
Is it 2012 yet?
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis article is bunk. Neither Granholm nor anyone else could have prevented Michigan's manufacturing plight. The real damage started under Reagan by dismantling the union and allowing corporations to move operations overseas where cheaper labor could be exploited. That is the real culprit. This, coupled with a lack of regulation by John Engler and the W Bush Administration solidified Michigan's demise in the 2000's. At the same time, Obama inherited the worst possible scenario a president could inherit. He has to clean up the mess that W Bush left behind. Remember, the recession started in 2007-2008, under his watch due to a lack of oversight and the refusal to listen to warnings. The deficit spiked because W Bush and a GOP Congress lowered the marginal tax rates while increasing military spending, much akin to what Reagan did.
It is time for smart reform and the dismissal of maligned blame like that of this article.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThis article is right on the money. Michigan is an economic disaster. It's not only manufacturing jobs that are fleeing the state, it's a host of others due to the "progressive" income tax hikes Gov. Granholm and her democratic colleagues in the legislature foisted upon business and high earners. If the Michigan model is the future for the US, god help us.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbusePerhaps the deficit did start under Bush but it spiked due to the Democratic House's spending spree starting in '06 and soared to astronomical levels under Obama.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseMr Payne, you don't think it's at all disingenuous to compare unemployment at the beginning of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression to unemployment in the middle (or towards the end of) it? You think that the entire increase in unemployment can be laid not just at the feet of the former governor, but at this one policy proposal she named in a State of the State? I know this is only a short blog post, but you could find any space in your word count to point to specific examples of policies that had a negative effect on businesses or stifled job growth, instead choosing to isolate parallels between two speeches by two executives & claim they will have the same final results? I hope you & the rest of the NRO's staff aren't so desperate to bash the President that this is what's going to pass for criticism.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYou have no idea what you're talking about. The autos where destroyed by the same disease that is plaguing our municipalities, cities and states. Overpaid union workers with excessive pensions and unfair labor practices, and coupled with total mismanagement say the decline of the autos and the rest of our great country. I have lived thorough 50 yrs of it and can tell you exactly what happened. We are a global ecomony and you cannot compete with overseas jobs at lower costs. Everybody wants something for free or dirt cheap, and until this cycle stops, the jobs will keep on leaving. Could that last person in Michigan please turn out the lights.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseYeah! You tell'em jvjr10.
Stoopid companies refusing to lose money.
Stoopid consumers unwilling to pay a premium for high wage union labor produced goods.
Stoopid Guvment for allowing capital to move to less unionized, less regulated and hence more efficient locales.
All that does is save consumers money and still allow companies to make money. who's money do they think that is? theirs?!?!?
Doesn't anyone understand we will never be able to make a truly progressive and green Workers Paradise if we give people choices?
jeez...
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseGood article but goes way overboard about the Michigan investments to make a correct point about investment not working at a national level.
Michigan collapsed because the ecosystem built around car manufacturing fell apart as the south became the main area for new domestic and foreign car production. On top of that Michigan never was a good climate for small innovators but support systems for big companies.
Can lower taxes help? It can't hurt of course, but frankly Michigan is in for a touch haul outside of certain blessed communities.
Reply to this commentLinkReport Abuse@Christopher.David
"Mr Payne, you don't think it's at all disingenuous to compare unemployment at the beginning of the greatest economic crisis since the Great Depression to unemployment in the middle (or towards the end of) it?"
The fact Michigan's unemployment rate in 2006 was 7.4% is shameful. The fact it is 11.4% now is simply tragic.
Michigan is one of many poster-child states on how NOT to govern. Living in Texas, I encourage Michigan to continue its policies.
We like successful people moving in.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseSimilar failure is happening in California with "green jobs" initiatives. "Green jobs" is really a euphemism for higher energy costs (and higher unemployment).
The same failure happened in Spain with their green energy initiatives.
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