Surveys of 1,000 Likely Voters
June 3-6, 2009
| Issue | Democrats | Republicans |
|---|---|---|
| Health Care | 47% | 37% |
| Education | 44% | 37% |
| Social Security | 43% | 37% |
| Abortion | 41% | 41% |
| Economy | 39% | 45% |
| Taxes | 39% | 44% |
| Iraq | 37% | 45% |
| Nat’l Security | 36% | 51% |
| Gov’t Ethics | 29% | 35% |
| Immigration | 29% | 43% |
My op-ed in the Detroit Free Press.
http://www.freep.com/article/20090611/OPINION05/90611022/1231/OPINION/A%20dangerous%20choice
June 11, 2009
GM offers brutal lesson about labor in U.S
By Saul Anuzis
The news that General Motors (GM) declared bankruptcy makes me ill. You see, I grew up in Michigan, where the auto industry was so much a part of the culture, that I and many others considered it as American as apple pie. My father spent 32 years as a skill tradesman at the GM Fisher Body plant in Detroit.
Yet, as GM awaits its $30 billion in government, bail-out money, 68% of which could end up going to the United Auto Workers (UAW), its employees look for new jobs. The same folks who made demands of GM it could not meet now stand to receive as much as $20 billion.
By the end of the day, the Federal Government will own more than 50% of GM and the UAW will own another 20%.
There is an old saying that “as GM goes, so goes America.” Let me explain.
The reason that the great American tradition of making cars in my home state has now gone belly up is due in large part to the irrational and unreasonable demands made by UAW chief Ron Gettelfinger, former UAW chief Frank Garrison, and the union leaders that came before them. And the rest of it lies with the management of the Big 3 who made promises they knew they couldn’t keep, and the politicians who continued to enable this to happen.
GM will have to close plants and dealerships all over the country just to stay afloat. But staying afloat is more than some of their employees may be able to get away with.
It seems like all we are left with are questions. What if the UAW & management had negotiated more reasonable and competitive contracts earlier, would GM have survived?
All of this serves as a sobering reminder of how power-hungry union leaders – still at work trying to elevate their interests above those of employees and employers – pose a major threat to other industries. Currently being considered in Congress is a bill that would decimate small businesses throughout the nation while lining Big Labor’s pockets. The Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act (EFCA) provides no real free choice to workers or employers, but does ensure both union bosses and their mismanaged pension programs are rewarded and subsidized.
Under EFCA, a worker’s right to a secret ballot vote during union elections would vanish as would a businesses right to determine the wages and benefits of its employees. Leaders on both sides of the political spectrum have decried EFCA as an unnecessary risk to the American economy and a step back in our democracy.
A recent economic study by Dr. Anne Layne-Farrar reveals that every three percentage points gained in union membership through card checks and mandatory arbitration would result in a one percentage point rise in the unemployment the following year.
The American people cannot afford legislation that further damages the economy. EFCA puts everything at risk – our jobs, businesses, sacred right to a private vote, and the right of workers to have a say on contracts determining their wages and benefits.
EFCA essentially serves as an opportunity for the labor bosses to do to small business what they have done to the great American auto industry. But, simply stated, our nation cannot afford it.
The common thread throughout all of this is that the workers suffer most – and in an incredibly challenging economic environment – there are few things that would be more damaging than the Employee ‘Forced’ Choice Act.
Any vote for job-killing legislation that eliminates worker rights and sacrifices small businesses in an attempt to reward union bosses will never see the light of day. The GM bankruptcy demonstrates just how high the stakes really are in this debate.
Saul Anuzis is the former chair of the Michigan Republican Party.
Quick Communications, Inc. - Quick is a Clarkston Michigan boutique provider of internet and telephone services. Quick’s known for its strong customer service provided by staff who all have more than 10 years experience and love to come to work. Quick’s flagship produce centers on Cisco IP phones that operate off Quick’s carrier grade switching platform over private lines. This architecture saves its customers 75% of the cost of new phone systems and provides for infinite growth by just adding phones one any number at a time, at one or multiple locations. The private lines are dual use, providing high speed internet 24 hours a day. Quick also provides a myriad of software driven features, such as auto attendant, music on hold, and Quick Capture, a proprietary 7 feature, easy to use CRM system that users learn by simply using it.
For traditional phone systems, Quick provides the lowest cost private line service in southeast Michigan, with the same legendary customer service. No voice trees at Quick. All calls answered within four rings by a live person who will handle 95% of a customer’s issues before hang up. In house customizable billing, auto charge to credit cards, pay by phone, online invoices with interactive features such as expanding the font size for easier reading, or downloading call detail for the customer to input into spreadsheets for their own manipulation.
For Immediate Release
Royal Oak June 6, 2009
JOB FAIR
REALITY JOB SEARCH- A unique consortium of local Michigan business will be holding a Job fair in Royal Oak on June 10thstarting at 12:00 noon.
In the spirit of having fun and playing into current events the job interviews will take the form of “Michigan has talent” contest where job applicants will have 3-5 minutes to pitch their case for the job.
The companies representing services for small and medium businesses include telecommunications, web services, business insurance and benefits, interactive media and advertising services. This group of successful local entrepreneurs is reaching out to help small businesses save money in these difficult times and create jobs in the process.
A panel of “experts” in the business areas that will be represented by the consortium will act as judges along with other local business leaders. Also, the public that may be passing by the interview location at 4th and Main Street in Royal Oak may have a hand in the voting. The consortium will also be showcasing Michigan developed technology, products and services represented by this consortium of Michigan based companies.
Those participants selected to begin work will get the designation of “Special Agent Advisor” and will act as business consultants. The goal is to have some fun while creating some good paying summer and long term career opportunities.
Interested job seekers can show up at the Northwest corner of Main Street and 4th avenue in Royal Oak on June 10thbetween noon and 7:00 with 2nd interviews scheduled between 7:00 pm and 9:00 pm the same night. Up to 20 positions will be filled though this job fair. Candidates can also reserve a spot by e-mailing their resume to jobs@specialagentadvisors.com.
About
Kennon Worldwide, Inc.
Founded in 1994 Royal Oak based Kennon Worldwide, Inc. is a full service telecom, technology consulting and marketing services company. Kennon represents over 40 different products and services, and provides world-class 1 stop customer care.
Konsyerzh, L.L.C – GuestMVP™
Konsyerzh, L.L.C. is an interactive software and marketing company specializing in the Sports, Entertainment, and hospitality industries. GuestMVP™ combines new media with revenue and sponsorship opportunities, while providing a unique world-class interactive guest experience
Titanium Inc.
Titanium Incorporated is a Troy based technology solutions providers offering telecommunications, Manage security and remote access, Software Development, Web hosting and Project outsourcing. Titanium is a SBA 8a minority certified company providing quality technology services to both the commercial and government sectors.
Focus Insurance Agency, L.L.C.
Focus Insurance Agency provides a broad array of insurance and employee benefits products and services to individuals and companies in Michigan. Our needs based approach helps individuals and business owners select appropriate solutions to address their insurance coverage and the related expenditure.
For more information please contact
Greg Nasto 248-545-9299
By Thaddeus G. McCotter on 11.5.08 @ 6:07AM
Welcome to “Republican Rock Bottom.”
Possessed of no vision, no principle, no purpose, and no appeal, we deserved our fate.
Now, seize freedom!
Finally, we are divorced from self-deceits. Dead is the self-indulgent imbecility of “re-branding” — as if the Republican Party was a corporate product to be repackaged, not a transformational political movement to be led. Despite what the media will tell you, and what so-called “conservative leaders” will discuss ad nauseam during “secret” meetings, this situation is not a crisis. It is an opportunity. Today, we are as the Great Emancipator proclaimed during another time of national trial: unbound by the tired dogmas of the past; and free to think and act anew.
First, we must not mindlessly mimic the momentarily triumphant Left. Sleek, detached, media savvy non-entities posing as existentially anguished leaders are neither in our nature nor our future. We are not teeny-bopper, pop-star politicians or the ideological dinosaurs of wealth redistribution.
At heart, we Republicans are flesh and blood and backbone, the proud servants of people. If we re-orient our vision, renew our purpose, and reaffirm our principles, the times will demand us — not as we were, but as we must be!
While our party has pretended otherwise, this is no ordinary time. It is a transformative time in the life of our free republic. The economic, social, and political turmoil of rapid globalization has created chaos and, thereby, fertile fields for the Left. As Russell Kirk warned in The American Cause during the Industrial Age:
What really creates discontent in the modern age, as in all ages, is confusion and uncertainty. People turn to radical doctrines not necessarily when they are poor, but when they are emotionally and intellectually distraught. When faith in their world is shaken; when old rulers and old forms of government disappear; when profound economic changes alter their modes of livelihood; when the expectation of private and public change becomes greater than the expectation of private and public continuity; when even the family seems imperiled; when people can no longer live as their ancestors lived before them, but wander bewildered in new ways — then the radical agitator, of one persuasion or another, has a fertile field to cultivate.
Fertile, indeed, are America’s fields for the Left. In their Reflections on the York, PA, Focus Group (July 3, 2008), Peter Hart and Alex Horowitz studied 12 working Americans in a county President Bush won by a margin of nearly 2-1. In the excerpts below, we encounter working Americans’ despair about tomorrow:
This (focus group) was among the most difficult and disturbing that I can remember…. The group sees this election as being about big issues, not some of the small ones… The America they see is facing major and serious issues, and it is in need of visionary and serious solutions to its problems… These participants do not speak in terms of policy details and do not focus on numbers or the candidates’ platforms… The fault lines in this group are about a deeper and more personal sense of how the world is right now and what the country needs.”
But the authors’ dismay pales before that of two working women staring into the abyss of the despicably christened “Post-American World”:
Sheryl: “I just don’t see (my children) being as successful, even as I was. And I’m not even as successful as my father was…I’m a single mom, and I’m taking care of three kids. And, I just…want to make it better for them too. So I’m thinking we do need change. I’m not sure that either one of the candidates are going to bring the changes that we need, but we certainly need change to make it better for (my children)….”
Janell: “Well, I think that, for most of my life, my decisions have been made, based on morals and family values, and like that whole belief system that I’ve had instilled in me since birth. And now, all of a sudden, our country is just like turned upside down with all these economic issues that we, I haven’t encountered in my lifetime. And it’s really making me second-guess, you know, voting for those ideals, instead of voting for some of the other issues that need to be dealt with.”
Sheryl and Janell are Republicans.
How do you think Sheryl and Janell felt about their party when it abandoned principle for expediency, and proposed and helped pass the $700 billion Wall Street bailout? If this — the greatest expansion of government into the private sector since the “New Deal” — was “just a little socialism to prevent a lot of socialism later,” why won’t Main Street demand the same little bits of socialism to tide them over? Clearly, if Republicans refuse to accept globalization as a process to be channeled into constructive change for Americans, the public will continue to demand we remain the minority party.
This will not happen, if at Republican Rock Bottom we think and act anew.
At a similar transformational time, amidst the Great Depression’s economic disruption and despair, Franklin Delano Roosevelt asserted the need for “leaders of thought at times when certain historic ideas in the life of the nation had to be clarified.” Amen. Thus, Republicans must heed Demosthenes’ plea to his endangered fellow Athenians — “In God’s name, I beg of you to think!”
Heeding this call, I submit the following:
Why is there a Republican Party? We exist to keep America the greatest nation on earth.
What is the Republican Party’s vision of America’s present and future? We believe America simultaneously faces and must transcend four transformational, generational challenges.
Specifically, Republicans see the historical parallels between the Greatest Generation and our Global Generation.
America’s Greatest Generation surmounted a quartet of transformational challenges: economic, social, and political upheavals; a world war against an evil; the Soviet Union’s rise as a strategic threat and rival model of governance; and the moral struggle for equal civil rights.
Today, America’s Global Generation must also transcend a quartet of transformational challenges born of our interconnected world: economic, social and political upheavals; a global war against an evil enemy; Communist China’s rise as a strategic threat and rival model of governance; and moral relativism’s erosion of our nation’s foundational, self-evident truths.
What are the Republican Party’s principles that will be employed to meet and surmount these challenges? We have five enduring principles:
1. Our liberty is from God not the government.
2. Our sovereignty rests in our souls not the soil.
3. Our security is through strength not surrender.
4. Our prosperity is from the private sector not the public sector.
5. Our truths are self-evident not relative.
What are the Republican Party’s goals? We will advance liberty, preserve tradition, and achieve constructive change for Americans in this trying time.
This we will do!
So, please, don’t despair at Republican Rock Bottom. Despite our party’s dark hour in this dawning millennium, by thinking and acting anew, Republicans will champion American principles and ensure that our nation remains inspired and guided by the virtuous genius of our free people; and forever blessed by the unfathomable grace of God. We will seize freedom. We will be freedom!
United States Representative Thaddeus G. McCotter
is chair of the Republican House Policy Committee.
FINANCIAL TIMES
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/cd00d2c6-4ee2-11de-8c10-00144feabdc0.html
COMMENT/Opinion
How Washington blew GM’s bankruptcy
By Michael Levine
Published: June 1 2009 20:33 | Last updated: June 1 2009 20:33
As General Motors finally filed for bankruptcy on Monday, some critics of
the move have already made the case that Congress, not a White House task
force, should have planned the bankruptcy. They are right about one thing: a
White House task force should not have planned the bankruptcy. But they are
180 degrees wrong about what the government should have done. The bankruptcy
needed much less “public policy” input, not more. If GM were going through a
“normal” bankruptcy, here is what would have happened:
When it saw it was running out of cash last November, GM would have been
forced to put together a plan that immediately stopped its financial
haemorrhaging by selectively suspending its obligations and asked for
protection from its creditors by filing under Chapter 11 of the bankruptcy
code. To keep going through the process without liquidating, it would have
had to get a debtor-in-possession loan (a high-priority loan secured by all
the company’s assets). As a condition of providing the DIP loan, the
government, like a private lender, might have insisted upfront on installing
a management committed to a successful bankruptcy. Once in bankruptcy, GM
management would have been required to propose a reorganisation plan with a
reasonable chance of success. GM would have been able to determine which
contracts to reject, giving it the chance to restructure its dealer
networks, supply and long-term debt, secured and unsecured. Crucially, using
Section 1113 of the bankruptcy code, it would have been able to reform its
labour contracts to the extent necessary to achieve a successful
reorganisation. If its proposals are rejected by the union without good
cause, the court can impose it.
During bankruptcy, GM would have been able to sell off divisions, facilities
and brands. Finally, if a plan of reorganisation that was likely to get a
better outcome than liquidation was proposed, the court would approve it and
a “new” GM would emerge.
What would have been the impediments to doing this? Management would not
face the inevitable, so GM had (perhaps deliberately) placed itself in a
position where it needed money to keep going long enough to file for
bankruptcy. No private credit might have been available for a DIP loan under
the conditions prevailing then and now. If the filing was done without prior
negotiation with unions and creditors, the proceeding might have been so
messy and protracted that it could have substantially reduced the
possibility of a successful reorganisation. The plan might not succeed.
Notice that I have not mentioned that the filing and the actions taken to
protect GM from its creditors would cause great pain to workers, suppliers,
dealers and cities. That is because that pain will occur anyway.
What would have been the role for government in this scenario? Providing
bridge financing and a DIP loan, and setting a much shorter deadline for
filing than was ultimately adopted. The deadline would have forced all
parties to negotiate as much “prepackaging” as possible, because the unions
and unsecured creditors would not have wanted to take their chances on a
filing, and the secured creditors could not have been assured of a rapid
liquidation in such an important bankruptcy. The loan could have been
secured by GM’s assets and a claim on its revenues, and not involved the
government in owning and managing the company. The billions of dollars the
government would have saved by starting this process last winter could have
been used to alleviate collateral damage through aid to state governments,
unemployment insurance, etc. Both of those activities would have met genuine
needs, commercial and social, without the government being forced to own and
manage GM.
Instead, the Obama administration overtly played favourites to get the
United Auto Workers protection it would not have received under Section
1113, probably elevating costs in a way that will damage prospects for a
successful reorganisation. It made and imposed business judgments on GM
about what cars to make and what plants to close (and perhaps about
suppliers and distribution) that no one in the government or on the task
force had the experience to make and for which no one would be financially
accountable. Worst of all, despite Sunday’s desperate attempt to distance
itself from GM’s future decisions, it left its fingerprints all over the new
plan. Inevitably the White House will take political and hence financial
responsibility for its success, relieving pressure on management and labour
to succeed. Ultimately it elected to adopt an industrial policy toward the
industry that failed utterly in the UK, and has worked out badly and
expensively in France and Italy.
Finally, in the process, it disturbed the security of expectation that has
made lenders willing to provide capital as secured credit, thus handicapping
all US industry and undermining what has been, for all its flaws, one of the
best financial reorganisation processes in the world, now emulated
elsewhere.
The administration took a tragic situation and turned it into an expensive
mess to pay a political debt. It wasted billions of dollars over many months
delaying GM’s filing and then implicitly put itself on the hook for many
billions more. The financial, political and social echoes of that decision
will be with us for a long time. In short, they blew it.
- The writer is distinguished research scholar and senior lecturer at New
York University School of Law
From the Detroit News:
Royal Oak – Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard will announce his run for governor Wednesday.
He’ll launch his campaign at three stops across the state: in Clawson, Lansing and Grand Rapids.
Bouchard will meet with Michiganians to address their concerns and preview his ideas and solutions for fixing Michigan, according to a statement from the Bouchard for Governor campaign.
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Other candidates and potential candidates on the Republican side are Attorney General Mike Cox and U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, Secretary of State Terri Lynn Land, state Sen. Tom George of Texas Township, and Ann Arbor businessmen David Brandon and Rick Snyder.
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