If a Republican said this the MSM & libs everywhere would
be all over this like white on rice.
Of Taxes and 'Treason'
Michigan's governor explodes after reading The Wall Street Journal.
Thursday, July 14, 2005 12:01 a.m. EDT
Never say we aren't willing to help an editorial subject in distress, and Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm clearly needs some friendly advice.
Last month the state legislature buried the Democratic Governor's top legislative priority, a grandiose proposal to raise taxes on insurance companies, banks and thousands of small businesses that private studies said would have cost up to 20,000 jobs. Ms. Granholm's plan was widely criticized, including in these columns in March and in an op-ed article on the opposite page last Thursday by state legislator Rick Baxter, a Republican, and Hillsdale College Professor Gary Wolfram.
Ms. Granholm was not pleased, going so far as to denounce the op-ed as "treasonous for the state of Michigan." The authors' high crime? Exposing Michigan as a high tax state and criticizing Ms. Granholm for wanting to raise taxes. Her choice of words was no inadvertent slip of the tongue, by the way--a Howard Dean-like temporary loss of sanity. The Governor has used the "t" word repeatedly and has even suggested that Mr. Baxter "should be removed from office."
Well, we recall that the first time an American was accused of "treason" for opposing high taxes was when New Englanders dressed as Indians and dumped tea in Boston Harbor. And it was America's most famous tax protester, Patrick Henry, who declared: "If this be treason, make the most of it." Ms. Granholm was born in Canada so maybe she missed this American history.
Sorry to say, the facts laid out in Messrs. Baxter and Wolfram's column and in our previous editorial are well-established. When it comes to high taxes, the Wolverine State ranks fifth both in per-capita terms and as a share of personal income. Michigan also has the nation's highest unemployment rate. There is no shortage of studies that have linked these two phenomena.
More troubling about Ms. Granholm's recent combustion is that she seems to believe that the problem is that the rest of the world will find out about Michigan's high taxes, not the high taxes themselves. But Michigan's inhospitable tax climate is hardly a state secret, especially to the state residents and businesses who have to endure it.
Not so long ago, Ms. Granholm was regarded as the rising star of the Democratic Party--innovative, articulate, and attractive--and some even talked of changing the Constitution so she could run for President (perhaps against Austrian-born Arnold Schwarzenegger). But her latest public approval ratings have hit the skids while her legislative agenda lies in shambles. She's now off to Japan in a quest to "bring jobs and businesses to Michigan," and her latest complaint is that her task has been undermined by a global business newspaper--The Wall Street Journal--"bad-mouthing the state."
Let us be clear: No one would like to see a robust economic recovery in Michigan more than we would. If Governor Granholm were selling a message of cutting taxes, not raising them, her job would be a lot easier and she'd be in a lot less agitated state of mind.
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