Issues
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Economy, Education, Environment
In this campaign I will be stressing the interdependence of the economy, education, and the environment. These issues form a seamless web bolstering one another in bringing a bright future to the citizens of Michigan. To build a better economy, it is necessary to bring new jobs to Michigan....
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Saving Money Through Consolidation
Each layer of government costs something. Some layers of government have been around for so long that we no longer think of what life might be like without them, and, accordingly, we never think of how much we could save in taxpayer dollars by eliminating or consolidating governmental...
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Quality of Life and Michigan's Future
There is a wave of political thought, represented at the extreme by tea-bag protesters, that all that is necessary for the economic health of a state is to reduce taxes to the next-to-nothing level. Although low taxes are always desirable (and giving due deference to the fact...
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Lost Revenue
Politicians are quick to suggest that almost any budget crisis can be fixed, in whole or in part, by “closing tax loopholes”. When asked to be specific as to what loophole they have in mind, the answer always seems to wander a bit. When it comes to taking action to enforce tax...
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Public Employees
There is a fundamental principle that is often ignored when politicians and tax protesters demand that budgets should be balanced on the backs of public employees. The principle is this: A public employee is still an employee, and a public employer is still an employer. When individual investors...
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5% Republican Tax Hike?!?!
Imagine this headline in a parallel universe – sort of a Bizarro World where the unthinkable could happen. In this parallel world, the Republican leaders in the Michigan House and Senate have just announced that in order to balance the state’s budget, they are calling...
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The Basics
Much of what I have to say here is beyond disagreement, but every American running for any office in the land, great or small, should be required to express himself or herself on these basic truths. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr., awakened our nation’s conscience with these words:...
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Renewable Energy
Michigan's Role in Engineering for the New Renewable Energy Economy A recent article in the November , 2009, Scientific American demonstrates why Michigan must make itself ready to take full advantage of the inevitable world-wide shift from carbon fuels to renewable energy. The article,...
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Negative Campaigning
I have always believed that campaigns should be won on the merits, with the focus being on real issues. In modern day politics, however, it sometimes happens that even the best of people fail to heed their better instincts when desperation and their advisors tell them to go negative....
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Unlimited Corporate Political Spending
First let me make this disclaimer: I am a hardball fan of the First Amendment. I regard it as the cornerstone of the Bill of Rights and the defining statement of what the American republic is all about. But a majority of Justices of the United States Supreme Court have just applied the First...