Dear Friends, Congratulations to our Congressman Dave Camp, who was selected this week by the Republican Conference to serve as Chairman of the Ways and Means Committee for the 112th Congress. Camp will be only the third Representative from Michigan to serve as Chairman of this Committee, largely regarded as one of the most powerful in the House, where the Constitution says all tax bills must originate. And, congratulations to Senator Roger Kahn on being elected Head of Appropriations in the Michigan Senate. He had previously served as a member of the committee. Helene Wiltse, Chair |
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Xerox is doing it again!
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 Here's an easy way to make someone's day! Send a Thank You card to a man or woman in our military service in Iraq. You can't pick out who gets it, but it will go to a member of the armed services.
The website Lets Say Thanks makes it easy, and Xerox and many other sponsors make it possible. You simply choose what card, designed by school children, you want to send, then choose a message. If you want to say something from the heart, you can even write your own message. Then, a couple of clicks of the mouse and it's on its way. So, give a thank you to the men and women who fight to keep the rest of us free, during this holiday season when we reflect on what we're thankful for.
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Where's The Jobs?
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Just in case you might think all the poor political decisions and problems are with the federal government, here's a very local example.
You may have read about GlobalWatt, a manufacturer of solar energy equipment, coming to Saginaw last year. They made a big media splash in 2009, winning both state and local tax concessions and subsidies to bring a $177 million manufacturing plant to Saginaw, that their application with the Michigan Economic Growth Authority (MEGA) claimed would bring 500 jobs: 100 annually through 2016.
Now, a year later, they have not built any manufacturing plant, but have instead moved into a vacant building formerly occupied by Enterprise Automotive Systems, which The Saginaw News has stated is still, "a mostly empty warehouse." Their total onsite staff is about 17 people, "mostly in sales, marketing and fundraising," and the only manufacturing equipment that has been reported installed is some end-of-line assembly equipment: nothing to manufacture anything.
In fact, they are buying solar panels and parts from others. GlobalWatt admits in an e-mail via eBay that they ordered 12 solar panels from an Indian company and 5 of them are now for sale on eBay. The solar cells for the panels were made by Suniva, a company located in the state of Georgia. Additionally, GlobalWatt has struck a deal to purchase flexible solar panels from Ascent Solar Technologies of Thornton, Colorado. GlobalWatt intends to use these in a line of adaptable, retractable solar modules to add an extra source of power to existing solar applications.
Could those applications include portable solar power equipment, also not manufactured by GlobalWatt? It appears so, because in November, the Midland Daily News reported that GlobalWatt signed an agreement to buy tow trailers from Millard Sales of Omaha, Nebraska to manufacture and sell mobile solar systems. Millard will provide the trailers and GlobalWatt will furnish system components and outfit the trailers with inverters, batteries, controllers and various AC/DC-powered specialty applications. Can one really say that GlobalWatt will be manufacturing anything in Saginaw?
It appears that they will at best be buying equipment and merely assembling them, an activity that seems unlikely to product the number of jobs promised. Especially when they have created virtually no jobs the first year. And they may be in breach of their application with the MEGA, which stated their business plan was to create their first U.S. solar module manufacturing plant and assemble solar panels, not buy them for resale.
The Mackinac Center for Public Policy first raised questions about GlobalWatt in September. The Center's Kathy Hoekstra and Mike LaFaive discovered claims made on its application for state tax credits were misleading or simply not true (making false claims on such an application is a felony). Those tax credits were contingent upon GlobalWatt following through on promises of job creation. A community college that trained workers for the jobs to be available has said that GlobalWatt only hired one of these persons. And the Corpus Christie Caller also reported in October that, "A company that picked (Saginaw) Michigan instead of Corpus Christi to establish a solar module facility misrepresented its Texas incentive offer when it applied for the $24 million in incentives Michigan awarded the company."
A lot of evidence that we should get government, at all levels, out of the business of choosing winners and losers among businesses. Might a comparison be made with the Richard Short episode in Flint, where an investor promised jobs and received tax credits from the Michigan Economic Development Corp., only to have the credits revoked after the discovery in March that Short was a convicted embezzler?
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Help Cut The Federal Budget
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 Here's a quick question: Why in the world are our tax dollars spent for political campaigns? They are, with about $520 million spent in 10 years. It may not be a huge amount, as federal spending goes, but every half billion counts. Congressman Eric Cantor's You Cut program lets you tell Congress what to cut, and this may be an easy mark. In the first six months, he and his colleagues brought to the floor over $150 billion in spending reductions, all recommended by citizens. Check it out and send him some more ideas, using the "Submit Your Idea" button at the bottom of the page. As the Republicans will soon have the majority in House, they will actually be able to make these cuts.
Mr. Cantor has also announced that he is running for House Majority Leader, and besides the You Cut program, he has many other ideas to finally spend less. He notes, "In 1995, the new Republican majority brought forward a rescission bill to rollback excessive spending. Rather than one bill, however, it is my goal to bring forward a series of rescissions bills as your Majority Leader. Each of which would be open for amendment to reduce spending even further. In 1995, the House considered five floor amendments to provide additional reductions in spending. Given the rapid increases in spending over the past several years and the fact that we have largely been precluded from offering amendments to spending bills, I suspect there will be great interest in offering proposals to cut excessive spending."
Such an approach, a series of rescissions bills under an open amendment process, would provide House Republicans the opportunity to demonstrate fiscal discipline and highlight the simple fact that government spending exploded in the last Congress. Perhaps we should ask our Congressman, Dave Camp, to vote for Mr. Cantor for Majority Leader, so he can carry out this program.
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Ten Poorest Cities In the United States
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 First, here's the list, using U.S. Census Bureau "2006 American Community Survey" data from August 2007. The cities are listed along with their official poverty rates: 1. Detroit, MI - 32.5% 2. Buffalo, NY - 29.9% 3. Cincinnati, OH - 27.8% 4. Cleveland, OH - 27.0% 5. Miami, FL - 26.9% 5. St. Louis, MO - 26.8% 7. El Paso, TX - 26.4% 8. Milwaukee, WI - 26.2% 9. Philadelphia, PA - 25.1% 10. Newark, NJ - 24.2% Now, what do these top ten cities of over 250,000 population with the highest poverty rate all have in common? Apparently: Detroit, MI hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1961, Buffalo, NY hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1954, Cincinnati, OH hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1984, Cleveland, OH hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1989, Miami, FL has NEVER had a Republican mayor, St. Louis, MO hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1949, El Paso, TX has NEVER had a Republican mayor, Milwaukee, WI hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1908, Philadelphia, PA hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1952, Newark, NJ hasn't elected a Republican mayor since 1907. It is the poor who habitually elect Democrats, sometimes for 100 years running, yet they are still POOR!
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The Republican mission seeks to maintain a strong defense, encourage individual achievement and liberty through the free enterprise system, and strengthen families. If you would like to help us move the area and the country towards these goals, please consider donating to the Saginaw County Republican Committee. Every donation, no matter how large or small, will help ensure that we can find and elect people to work for those goals. You can do so by mail to PO BOX 6653, Saginaw, MI 48608 or on the web at www.saginawcountygop.com.
Sincerely,
Helene Wiltse, Chair, Saginaw County Republican Party
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Newsletter Archive
Helene Wiltse, Chair
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