Given the panic in the markets and the spectacular losses that led to a deep recession, it’s easy to see why people of all political persuasions were wondering how on earth such a crisis could occur.

But in that crisis — as in all economic downturns — there is more than one group or one cause for a crash. Few realize that it was the government under the Clinton administration that began forcing banks to give homes to those in society who simply couldn’t afford them.

Even less admit it was members of both parties who sat on their hands in Congressional committees when they should have been regulating securities on the trading floor.

Because most people don’t have the time or the interest to read up on Federal Reserve history or know the proper process of regulating mortgage backed securities, just blaming the bankers becomes an easy way to win political points. For two years, the left has used this national strategy to justify everything in its agenda.

Democrats have used the same strategies in Michigan politics. It is seen in the unfair and less substantive budget bashing associated with Gov. Rick Snyder’s fiscal proposals brought forth by Democrats. Most frustrating and inaccurate is the criticism of his emergency financial manager proposal.

Fliers to protest in front of the state capital call for reclaiming democracy. It’s very dramatic.

It is worth saying there are legitimate debates about the size and scope of government that pertain to state and national politics. I am not glossing over them, but I am opposed to the constant demagoguery of this provision with the same false narratives used during the financial crisis.

The provision in the budget calling for emergency financial managers is nothing these fliers say it is. It essentially is treating the public sector like the private sector. In bankruptcy court, all contracts between shareholders and unions become void when a company goes belly up.

Whatever is left of the company is divided up amongst those parties as the court decides. The company is sold off to someone who can run it correctly, and the old company becomes history.

Similarly, the financial managers only would come into financially distressed areas. Just as a bankruptcy court voids contracts between shareholders and unions, so would the governor’s office.

Then, competent individuals would come in to do the peoples’ business. If anything, this brings incentives for local and state governments to be responsible with their finances. It prevents government from becoming too big to fail in the way banks did in the September 2008.

Capitalism is supposed to be a profit and loss system, not a place where bankers or public officials make obligations that could default on the backs of our entire society. There is nothing undemocratic about that goal.

Our economic burdens are based in a government we cannot afford. Those from whom the government borrows money to pay for public services are telling public officials they will no longer believe their faux math. The bondholders want their money, we are broke, and we have no choice.

The sad thing in all of this is that our governor is steering a center-right agenda. Regardless of what you might think of his budget, he is not Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker. He is not trying to push collective bargaining the way Democrats pushed through the health care bill.

He’s trying to make the tax code more fair and efficient and eliminate burdens for businesses of all sizes to come and thrive in Michigan. He is trying to make government do more for less money, and this provision that has been so misrepresented is part of that effort.

I’ll even admit there are things in Snyder’s budget I am not a fan of. And like I said, there are legitimate issues to debate about. But the emergency financial managers provision is not one of them.

Ameek Singh is a State News guest columnist and an international relations junior. Reach him at sodhiame@msu.edu.