Looks like things are zeroing in on one budget in particular as Ed Burley alluded to yesterday.  This morning we read in the Associated Press that the hang up is, indeed, with the Department of Human Services.

Sen. Bill Hardiman, R-Kentwood, is among those pushing to put more DHS services into private hands.

He said it costs the state $550 a day to house each youthful offender at the W.J. Maxey Boys Training School in Whitmore Lake, but it would cost only $225 to $250 a day if the youths were dealt with through private companies.

"We need to move forward in this area. The money we save, we can spend in other needed areas," Hardiman said. "To ignore this, I think, is absolutely wrong."

Granholm, a Democrat, opposes giving more DHS services to private providers. So do labor unions representing state workers who would lose their jobs if their work is taken over by private agencies.

But that isn't even the half of it.  Most of the savings that can be realized via DHS comes through privatization of adoption and foster care services.  There are organizations across the state who specialize in these services, have the best and the brightest working for them and yet somehow they manage to do everything the state does at much less expense.  Isn't it funny how the government always seems to work that way?  

And so here we sit and wait, looking at the clock and counting the hours until all the budget birds come home again to roost.  The Granholm administration, for it's part, is sending out signals that if a deal can't be reached to balance the budget (read: if she rejects all of the cuts anyone comes up with and starts vetoing bills) she's willing and expecting to sign specific departmental continuation budgets this time to prevent a shutdown.

See, this is how it works with the Democrats, folks.  They whipped the MSM and the public into a frenzy this time a month ago, organized protests, letter writing campaigns, phone banks, you name it to pressure a handful of Republicans in the House and Senate (combined) to support their biggest-in-Michigan-history tax hike.  All $1.4 BILLION worth of it.  

Now that they've got it, well, they wouldn't want to shutdown government because it might hurt people, so they'll sign continuation budgets all day long.  Because the longer the Governor can put off spending cuts the more difficult it will be to find anything to cut.  And, thus, the more pressure the Democrat administration can levy on weak kneed state Reps and Senators from both parties to raise taxes again.

This is the time to get things done.  Pass the cuts!  Let the Governor veto them and shutdown government if that's her game.  That's on her.  She made the deal and now she's got to live for it.  Because, as we've discussed before, we're talking about people's lives!  

Read on...