http://statenews.com Before the end of the year, almost 90,000 unemployed workers in Michigan will have dried out their unemployment benefits. The state, which boasts the nation’s highest unemployment rate at 14.1 percent, is struggling to find short-term answers to the state’s larger problems. There’s currently a bill sitting in the Michigan Senate that could do just that. en-us Gryphon 2.2.3b-tsn (woodward)/Foundry5 Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:49:10 -0400 webmaster@statenews.com http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41266 Being that East Lansing is so close to Lansing, it wouldn’t stretch the imagination to think the State News would have a reporter who actually covers the Legislature and might understand the issues, so that maybe the editorial board could consult said reporter before writing an editorial that involves legislation. You know, just to get the facts straight and provide acurate information. The bill to which you refer that would give Michigan an additional $138 million of pork to extend unemployment benefits comes with strings. All slush, er stimulus spending, has strings attached. The Obama administration would force Michigan to increase the unemployment tax on business owners by $70 million a year. So in just two years, Michigan businesses would be forced to pay more in unemployment tax than the state would get from the feds (yes, 70 million x 2 is more than 138 million, no matter what “new math” you were taught or if the answer harms your self esteem). The other stipulation that comes with the $138 million is that the increased unemployment tax could not be rescinded when the slush money runs out. And what do you think will happen if the unemployment tax goes up? (Keep in mind that this is 100 percent funded by employers – there is no employee contribution.) If you said “more jobs would be lost” then give yourself a gold star. And then apply to the State News to be the capitol reporter. They can obviously use the help. Wed, 24 Jun 2009 21:03:24 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41266 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41271 I didn’t even read this garbage, I only had to read the title. Hey, financially illiterate editorial board, if you hadn’t heard State of Michigan has a $1.3 billion hole to plug. It’s not exactly California’s $24 billion hole or New York State’s $10+ billion hole, but it’s still a pain in the arse. We need to recall all the socialists in Lansing who made Faustian bargains with the UAW. Pension funds in Michigan are going to tank because they hold unsecured bonds with the autos, whom just got ramrodded by the UAW democratic mafia. Wed, 24 Jun 2009 22:28:48 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41271 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41283 First of all, great post Todd! Always nice to have someone supplement the SN driple with some facts. Second, “The state needs to make sure workers in training complete their education, because an economy is as good as its workers. The state should try and protect any people trying to be more effective in the job market. Since they can afford do to it, Michigan should continue paying benefits and hope the economy perks up by 2011.” How does this go with the SN editorial yesterday “Scholarship cuts unfortunate, necessary”? If the “economy is as good as its workers” shouldn’t we keep all the college scholarships we can? Thu, 25 Jun 2009 08:23:47 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41283 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41286 The state will certainly need the benefits once scholarships to intelligent and hardworking students are cut, as you advocated yesterday. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:06:59 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41286 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41290 Did y’all miss the memo? The state has no money. Businesses are going belly up. Taxing employers, both the successful and the struggling, is not going to make doing business here any more attractive. Businesses will close down, and more folks will be…drumroll…unemployed! These are undoubtedly tough times, but the answer is not to tax more and spend more. It is, like it or not, to cut back to the absolute bare minimum until things improve. Revenue and expenses need to match. Right now they don’t, and that doesn’t work any better for a state government’s finances than it does for a business or individual’s finances. Sometimes reality, kids, it sucks. But it’s real, like it or not. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 09:30:24 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41290 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41297 FACTS 1. Unemployment is not “earned,” per se. EMPLOYERS pay for it — not workers. 2. MICHIGAN’s UI account is BANKRUPT — businesses will be paying the UI debt for years. 3. NO BUSINESSPERSON with a brain would come to a state that is so ANTI-business. 4. MESSIAH screwed up — you take his plan, you buy it for years. That is why there is so much resistance. ANOTHER OBAMA LIE/LIE/LIE. Sick. Just sick. No jobs from this COMMIE-CRAT mess. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 10:32:16 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41297 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41307 Well, our military dictatorship will accelerate, that’s good news, we don’t have to anxiously wait around as much. When there is a massive number of unemployed, foreclosed (homeless) people with no savings, you’re going to start hearing about murders being a common occurrence. You won’t read it or see it in the news however because our press has lost all integrity. At this point, Obama finally brings out troops from Iraq home to crack down on the unruly citizens with an iron fist. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:25:59 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41307 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41338 DJJ If we aren’t going to see or read about these common place murders in the news, how exactly do we come to hear about them? And if we already know about them, what is the motivation for the press to cover them up and why do we care if they attempt to cover them up? Your tin foil hat appears to be a bit too tight. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 14:20:33 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41338 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41358 Word of mouth, friends of friends of friends, you’ll eventually hear about younger people dying off. Murder suicides are starting to be talked about more. The press won’t report dire situations so that people don’t panic and make runs on the banks and loot the commercial districts. Speaking of tin foil hats, search Google Patents Beta, you’ll find patents held by the military for psychological alteration using electromagnetic waves. Thu, 25 Jun 2009 17:06:43 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41358 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41394 “The state will certainly need the benefits once scholarships to intelligent and hardworking students are cut, as you advocated yesterday.” If the editorial wasn’t so outrageous, that’d be pretty funny! At least our MSU Student Newspaper is standing up for us MSU students…oh, wait… Todd’s point about how maybe it’d be a good idea for the State News to have a reporter go to the capital…thatd make too much sense. After all, the State News Editorial Board is the same group that mistook Natural Gas for Gasoline and wrote an entire editorial about it. Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:42:59 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41394 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41395 http://statenews.com/index.php/article/2009/01/look_to_power_plant_to_save_energy_on_campus PowerPlan burns “Gasoline”. lol Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:47:23 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41395 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41396 i think its supposed to be save_energy_on_campus Link Text Fri, 26 Jun 2009 11:49:10 -0400 http://statenews.com/index.php/comment/view/41396