Tag: Upton

Mr I-want-to give-more-money-to-A123, proudly defended the Keystone XL pipeline in the new Highway Bill.  At least he suggests it will happen after November:

"Congress approved a new highway bill today without a Keystone XL pipeline provision championed by Congressman Fred Upton.

...

"They've done a good job in the last three-plus years of slowing us down," Upton said in an interview with MLive/Kalamazoo from the House floor before the vote. "It will probably take a change in November to see the project go forward."

Yeah, I used the word 'obviously'. If it weren't so, we wouldn't be used as the initiation tool for the wet-behind-the-ears punk Republican fraternity, and its sponsoring institution, Sergeant Upton's Lonely Brain Club Band.  

Because we have a(dare I say it) 'liberal' posting policy, nearly ANYONE could post here.  In fact, if it isn't spam, and it isn't lefty talking points, (some people call them lies) we let the conversation stay.  It allows for a free discussion, and sometimes it even gets fiery. Debate is good for the soul, and frankly sharpens the tools we use in fighting off the progressive horde.

Its the American way.

But posting here has apparently become the holy grail for some folks. The very same folks who were maybe once upon a time excited to go to the big city 'Mayberry', and hopefully find the icon with the single bullet in his shirt pocket, now find excitement in our editorial environment.  So much so, that we are being used as the tool to try and (do the impossible) convince the conservative base that Fred Upton, who has the lowest conservative ranking for a congressman in Michigan,  is the better candidate in the CD6 race.  Not through a series of accolades for the man who banned what might be the greatest invention of the industrial age, but denigrating the character of the opponent Jack Hoogendyk through non substantiated claims and falsehoods.

And even as it was obviously a hit piece, it was allowed to remain.

Our commenting community quickly eviscerated the post adolescent author as was expected, and we did not expect to hear much from him again other than the weak rambling that is so often associated with such affairs.  What he doesn't know, is the whimpering his mom hears at night from the basement is really bothering her.

Maybe its time for him to move out.

Jack Hoogendyk talks a good conservative game, but his record tells a different story.  Hoogendyk voted for a billion dollar stimulus touted by Democrat Governor Jennifer Granholm that would let a board of bureaucrats' handout our money to the corporations and special projects of their choosing.  According to the highly respected Mackinac Center for Public Policy, this bill authorized government ownership of private businesses.  Hoogendyk voted twice for higher property taxes, six times for Granholm's revenue enhancements and a gas tax increase.  He voted dozens of times for failed Hollywood subsidies and for a full variety of green energy subsidies.  In the State House, Hoogendyk was one of a handful of members to vote against stronger punishments for extremely drunk drivers (the 1% who cause 50% of the alcohol-related traffic fatalities) and against a voluntary email notification so families could know when a convicted sex offender moved into their neighborhood.

Everyone's attention is rightly focused on Michigan's big Presidential Primary today but I figured this would be as good a day as any to chime back in here at RightMichigan with some other important news that is flying way under the traditional media's radar.

Time doesn't stand still during the primaries.

A Republican, Rick Snyder, is the father of the MEDC.  It was his baby, and lest anyone forget, it was created under the Republican Engler administration.  The MEDC, which has yet to produce a model that definitively demonstrates taking taxpayer funds, then giving those funds to hand picked "winners" produces net economic growth in our state.  The MEDC which essentially could be called a taxpayer funded venture capital scam.

The MEDC's MEGA, The state of Michigan through Tax Breaks, and the DOE,  which gave us that "success story" A123 systems.:

"When A123 Systems announced it was opening its lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant in Livonia in September 2010, then Gov. Jennifer Granholm wrote about it on the Huffington Post calling it "a Recovery Act success story."

But there have been troubles for A123 Systems in the 17 months since then despite a lot of state and federal aid to prop it up.

The state of Michigan gave it a $100 million MEGA tax credit that is contingent on the company creating 300 jobs by the end of 2016. A123 Systems also received another $41 million in tax breaks and subsidies from the state. The Department of Energy awarded A123 Systems a $249.1 million grant.

But the company has not been able to meet its own projections. For instance, on March 28, 2011 in an SEC filing, the company projected total revenue between $210 million to $225 million for 2011. Its latest report shows they had just $118 million of total revenue through the first three quarters of 2011 and reported a net loss of $172 million."

Yeah, that's a winner.

In fact doing so well, taxpayers should be happy to know that the top brass in the company thanks them for providing a generous raise.

An appropriations bill that does not specifically deny USDA funding to conduct inspections of horsemeat for human consumption could allow horse processing to resume in the U.S. The Fiscal Year 2012 Consolidated and Further Continuing Appropriations Act (H.R. 2112), or the so-called "Mini-bus Bill," establishes 2012 budgets for the Department of Agriculture and several other federal departments through September 2012.

Prior to 2005 USDA personnel carried out horsemeat food safety inspections at U.S. horse processing plants. In 2006 Congress voted to strip the USDA of funding for horsemeat inspections. USDA personnel continued to conduct those inspections on a fee-for-service basis until 2007 when a federal court judge ruled against the arrangement. The combination of the funding prohibition and the court decision resulted in the decline of the horse processing industry in the U.S.

Language stripping the USDA of horsemeat inspection funding did not appear in the original fiscal 2012 House Agricultural Appropriations bill when it was introduced earlier this year. However, the House Appropriations Committee adopted an amendment prohibiting the use of federal dollars to fund USDA horsemeat inspections. No such provision was contained in the Senate's version of the Appropriations bill.

After passage in their respective legislative houses, both the House and Senate bills were referred to a conference committee. The resulting consolidated bill did not contain the defunding language. The committee recommended the bill for passage, then forwarded to the full House and Senate for vote. On Nov. 17 the full House passed H.R. 2112 by 298-121 vote. The Senate also passed the bill by a 70 to 30 vote. President Barak Obama signed the bill into law on Nov. 18. As a result, the USDA could conduct horsemeat inspections at least until September 2012.

Michigan US Reps. Benishek, Camp, Clarke, Dingell, Kildee, Levin, Peters, Rogers, and Upton voted YES.  Both Michigan US Sens. Stabenow and Levin voted YES too.

It was actually Jason's column last week about that stupid gold coin idea being floated around the Supercommittee that put me over the edge.  "What other stupid ideas is the supercommittee considering," I wondered, and so I did a little digging and what I found was enough to finally push me over the edge from lurker to genuine participant.  

I actually want to make the argument that if it is serious about spending cuts, the supercommittee should SAVE a certain spending item--Medicare Part D--that a few lazy mathematicians and high school economics class dropouts want to cut.  Hear me out.

Should it hang until the next election is over? Should we update with fresh scarlet letters from even more recent miserable failures of those who are hanging patiently for all this time? Should we offer a positive spin on their recent accomplishments and then sigh, noting how they really screwed up before, and then point again to the left?

While waiting for some discussion on this, it should be noted that our concern about the debt ceiling being increased has been vindicated.  We were right, and those guys on the left were not. The trillions they added to the burden our children must carry, cannot be voted away as easily as their tenure in congress.  Experience DOES account for something, but it is not an excuse for repeatedly ducking responsibility, and they are indeed responsible for that fact.

Good men who screw up need to admit and own up to it, and offer their mistakes as lessons.  Personally, I see genuine contrition as a character building exercise.