[Mb-civic] Who Can Restart Michigan's Engine? - George F. Will - Washington Post Op-Ed

[William Swiggard]

Who Can Restart Michigan's Engine?

By George F. Will
Thursday, February 9, 2006; A23

DETROIT -- Michigan has a problem: Its prosperity is withering as 
America's automobile industry withers. So Gov. Jennifer Granholm (D) has 
a problem: She is seeking reelection in this cold economic climate. Her 
likely Republican opponent, Dick DeVos, has a problem: People are 
appalled by the state's condition, but they like Granholm. As does 
DeVos: "She's a really nice person."

The result may be a rarity -- an outbreak of gentility in politics. 
Debates about economic policies involve splittable differences, so 
civility might actually be served by the seriousness of Michigan's 
crisis. The focus on traditional economic issues may preclude any 
preoccupation with the cultural questions -- abortion, guns, same-sex 
marriage, etc. -- that tend to embitter politics.

DeVos, son of the co-founder of Amway, is a gentlemanly businessman from 
Grand Rapids. Recently he passed through this city's airport, dressed 
for wintry campaigning in the Upper Peninsula, where only 3 percent of 
the state's population lives. His full-court-press campaigning is fueled 
by the daily drizzle of terrible economic news.

Ford's announcement that it is cutting at least 25,000 jobs and closing 
14 manufacturing plants in North America was preceded by General Motors' 
announcement that it is cutting 30,000 jobs and closing 12 plants. Soon 
the largest North American maker of auto parts -- Delphi, based in Troy, 
Mich. -- may ask a bankruptcy judge to shred labor contracts covering 
33,000 workers. This would trigger a showdown with the United Auto 
Workers union. The UAW cannot strike Delphi without causing ripple 
effects that could inundate GM, which used to own Delphi and might, 
under the terms of the spinoff agreement, be responsible for anywhere 
from $3.5 billion to $12 billion of Delphi's "legacy" costs -- pensions, 
medical care -- for retirees.

Last year Michigan was the only state other than Mississippi and 
Louisiana -- that is, the only state not hit by Hurricane Katrina -- 
that had a net job loss. It has lost one in four auto manufacturing jobs 
since 2001. Republicans have paid for billboards proclaiming that 
Michigan has lost one job for every 10 minutes Granholm has been 
governor. Understandably, the percentage of voters disposed to reelect 
Granholm is 35 percent.

Michigan's corporate income tax burden will be ranked the 
second-heaviest in the Tax Foundation's forthcoming State Business Tax 
Climate Index. DeVos especially objects, as almost any conservative 
would, to heavy reliance on the Single Business Tax -- basically a 
payroll tax -- particularly as applied to service industries that can, 
and do, leave the state.

Granholm has a recognizably liberal recovery plan: The state has 
borrowed $2 billion to be invested by people her administration calls 
"independent job-creation experts." Translation: The $2 billion is a 
politically useful fund to be distributed to favored business executives.

DeVos is being attacked because, the chairman of the Michigan Democratic 
Party says, "He supports free trade, which has devastated the Michigan 
economy." So this race will preview what might be the highest stake in 
the 2008 presidential race -- repudiation of the basis of America's 
post-1945 prosperity. That basis was a bipartisan consensus in favor of 
free trade. That consensus has frayed, and by 2008 the Democratic Party 
probably will fully and formally embrace protectionism.

With 17 electoral votes, Michigan has recently been, and in 2008 will 
again be, a presidential election battleground state. In 2000, when 
Republican John Engler was governor, Al Gore defeated George W. Bush, 51 
to 46. In 2004, when Granholm was governor, John Kerry defeated Bush, 51 
to 48.

Another close presidential contest could turn on this state, in which 
the biggest city may be the nation's saddest, other than New Orleans -- 
and Detroit's condition is not the result of a natural disaster. 
Detroit's crime rate makes it second only to Camden, N.J., as America's 
most dangerous city. (Flint, Mich., is fourth.) Detroit has an adult 
functional illiteracy rate of 47 percent. A passionate advocate of 
school choice where schools are failing, DeVos knows he will be the 
object of passionate opposition from the teachers unions. But he says he 
operates on the assumption that this will be a close race, so if he 
wins, "48 percent will have voted against me."

United Van Lines, a winner from Michigan's losses, reports that last 
year the ratio of outbound to inbound moves was the state's highest 
since 1982, when Michigan's unemployment rate was 16.4 percent. DeVos 
tells audiences, "I don't want to have to get on a plane to visit my 
grandchildren." He wants them to have to go to Lansing to visit grandpa.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/02/08/AR2006020801987.html
-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: http://www.islandlists.com/pipermail/mb-civic/attachments/20060209/f6daf7c8/attachment.htm