The Wheels on the ‘Dem’ Bus Go Round and Round

It's time Michigan Democrats kick organized labor off the bus, or a least pry its white-knuckled fingers off the steering wheel before they all go careening -- and the state with it -- off the Mackinac Bridge.

I know, I know. “Them are fightin words.” In the land of Walter Reuther and Doug Fraser, one does tempt the gods with such musings. But, for the sake of Michigan, we have to ask whether we are better off with a political system -- and by that I mean a state legislative political system -- that must genuflect toward that hallowed ground known as Solidarity House?

Don't just take my word for it. Ask Andy Dillon.  You might know him as the erstwhile and well-coiffed Speaker of the Michigan House of Representatives. He’s a Democrat, from Redford Twp., and he’s got this “bold” idea to put all public employees (teachers, state workers, municipal employees, corrections officers, cops, etc.) into one group to create an uber-health insurance pool.  The goal is to lower health insurance benefit costs for local and state governments, all while maintaining quality of benefits for public employees. Could save billions, some say.

Sounds good, so far, unless you are one of the very well-paid union big-wigs around the state. They are downright  spittin’-nails mad, and they’ve drawn a bead on one of their own -- Andy Dillon.  Unions say his plan will gut benefits and eliminate collective bargaining. I think I hear someone crying wolf. (I’ve read his bill, H.B. 5345,  and I can’t see how it would do what the unions claim.)

In Lansing, it’s nothing to see an inter-familia dust up over a particular issue. It happens just as frequently with the Rs as it does with the Ds, but this one is public and it seems very personal.

Mark Gaffney, head honcho for the Michigan AFL-CIO went so far as to say -- during his annual Labor Day homage -- that Andy “was not a Democrat,” and suggested House Democrats exile Dillon for this heresy.  Tough crowd.

There is special-interest inertia in Lansing, from ALL political corners, that exerts power and influence to protect the status quo. It’s one of the main reasons Michigan can’t seem to get its financial house in order.  But the power that organized labor is exerting in Lansing seems out of kilter with the seismic change occuring in our state’s economy. Labor’s cold shoulder to Dillon’s proposal is just the latest example.

I am not sure I like Dillon's proposal: one reason is that it would create the absolute largest union in Michigan. That said, I am willing to talk about it and think it’s a worthwhile discussion to have. Michiganders are so yearning for leaders who are willing to stretch out their necks and offer something new that we’re willing to listen to almost any new idea. And we should. We’ve been doing the same thing over and over so much that we are starting to get a bit insane.

Which makes AFL-CIO Gaffney’s comments so unprecedented, and unfortunate. I’ve broken bread with Dillon. He’s smart. He has ideas. He cares about Michigan, even if he and I disagree at times on what’s best. But he's a guy who sees Michigan looking forward into its future rather than stuck on its past.

At the height of the labor movement in the 1970s, the UAW had more than 1.5 million members nationwide, most of them in Michigan. Today, that number is about 450,000 scattered throughout the United States. Yet labor’s clout in Lansing has not matched this percipitous decline. Good for them, but the jury is our whether it has been good for Michigan.

I hopped off the Democrat bus years ago because it just kept driving in circles. Maybe it’s time for Democrats to get a new driver before others do the same.

And in other news....Tax cuts hold the day....in Europe.

German voters gave Chancellor Angela Merkel enough support at the polls this weekend to keep the pro-tax-cutting-and-reforming leader at the head of its government. Merkel said she would push forward with tax cuts and regulation reforms aimied at jump-starting Germany’s worst economy since World War II. Her opponent, Frank-Walter Steinmeier, ran on a promise of huge government stimulus programs paid for with tax increases on higher income earners.

“There’s a clear sentiment in favor of economic changes, especially on income taxes,” Tilman Mayer, head of the Bonn- based Institute for Political Science, said in an interview. Voters have turned their back on grand coalition-style compromise politics.”

Indeed! Please cc: 1600 Pennsylvania Ave., Washington, DC.