Tuesday's vote was disappointing to David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.

"I think the future of Chrysler is dependent on a competitive wage structure," he said.
Chrysler sells most of its vehicles in North America and has little global presence. Its new owner, private equity firm Cerberus Capital Management LP, needs a partner to give it the global economy of scale that its main competitor, GM, already is using, Cole said.

Without a competitive wage agreement, no partner will join Chrysler, and that could make Cerberus look for other options to get a return on its investment, such as selling off the company in pieces.

Help!  Abstracts!  Chrysler and Cerberus and investments and competitors and capital management and locals and agreements and new owners and partners.  Bottom line when you boil it all down, we're talking about people.  Chrysler is a Michigan company.  We're talking about Michigan people.  About families.  

But at least in the case of the union negotiations it's the people themselves making the decisions.  The rest of us aren't that lucky when it comes to job-killing, family shaking tax hikes.  And no, this time I'm not talking about the kind that come out of Lansing.  We've already been hit with that one-two punch.  The real uppercut is a $400+ BILLION federal tax hike exclusively on the middle class courtesy of Carl Levin and his friends in the Democrat controlled Congress (the one with the public approval numbers in the teens).  

According to the Detroit News the Treasury Secretary yesterday "...warned Congress that failure to pass an AMT fix would expose 21 million mostly unsuspecting taxpayers to the minimum tax -- and an average tax increase of $2,000...."

Democrats controlling Congress have promised to make sure the AMT doesn't entrap more taxpayers during filing season next year. But House and Senate Democrats have yet to agree on specifics of an AMT fix or whether to raise revenues elsewhere in the tax code so that an AMT adjustment doesn't add to the deficit.

And we thought the Democrats were fiddling while Michigan burned.  Carl Levin, Debbie Stabenow, Bart Stupak and their buddies Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi can't even be bothered to pick up a fiddle.

$400 BILLION, people!  That's not pocket change, even on the federal level.  And the Dems can't even make their favorite argument claiming the rich can afford it.  This is an exclusively middle-class tax hike.  

Senator Levin sees the train coming in the distance and he knows Michigan's middle class is in the middle of the tracks but he refuses to help.  Nice of him, huh?  Think $400 billion out of the pockets of working people will have much of an economic impact?  Think that'll affect families?  People?

But Levin isn't the only one who needs a reminder that it's the economy, that it's people.  The FREEP published a massive campaign-profile style puff-piece about Speaker Andy Dillon, today, and he could use a good splash from the cold water of reality, too.  

(Dillon) hopes the recall campaigns fizzle and said they distract the Legislature from important state issues such as planning for energy needs, creating a catastrophic health insurance fund and attracting new jobs.

Well of course he hopes the recall campaigns fizzle, especially since he's been targeted.  But that's not the key part of that sentence.  Dillon's bought in, hook, line and sinker to the Democrats "government is the answer" mantra but he's also a lot bit delusional.  

How, Mr. Speaker, are you going to attract new jobs when you just passed the biggest tax-hike in the history of the state, proudly took credit for it and now refuse to make even modest cuts in government spending, angling for a second shutdown in a month (after having zero shutdowns in the state's history)?  This isn't about your legacy.  It isn't about your political future.  It isn't about your run for the Governor's office in 2010.  

It's about the economy.  It's about jobs.  It's about families.  If Dillon had remembered that from the beginning we wouldn't be in the mess we're in right now.  But as long as there's anyone left in this state (and I'm not going anywhere, myself) there's still hope that tomorrow we might get something right.  All it takes is the proper focus.