Dear Friends,
The College Republicans of Saginaw Valley State University will hold their 10th regular meeting on Tuesday, January 18th, 2011 at 7:00pm. The meeting will be in the Alumni Lounge, Curtiss Hall, on the campus at 7400 Bay Rd., Saginaw. The College Republicans of SVSU is a grassroots affiliate of the Republican Party in the Great Lakes Bay Region dedicated to spreading the conservative message across the campus, community and Michigan. Everyone is welcome to stop in; the Alumni Lounge is located on the bottom floor of Curtiss Hall.
If you are going to Grand Rapids for the State Convention on January 28 or 29 and would like someone to share a room, someone to share a ride, or more information about the Convention you can call Amy Carl (5th District) at 989-652-4898 or Catherine Zemanek (4th Distirct) at 989-573-2414.
And don't forget to click the "Forward" link at the bottom of this e-mail. Tell all your friends about us, help to educate them, and expand Saginaw County Republican membership before the next election!
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State of The State Address
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Governor Rick Snyder will deliver his first State of the State address at 7:00pm., January 19th at the Capitol before a joint session of the Michigan House and Senate. Snyder is expected to lay out specific goals of his promise to "reinvent Michigan" with an economic and political culture that promotes entrepreneurial spirit with lower taxes and less regulation. Those are themes he struck in his inauguration speech.
Snyder has previously called for replacing the state's business tax with a 6% corporate profits tax, which he has said will save Michigan businesses though is will reduce state revenues by $1.5 billion. He has also said that he would push for completion of a two-year budget plan that doesn't impose new taxes and makes job creation a top priority. He has already some action as executive, officially spliting the Department of Natural Resources and Environment back into separate agencies: the Department of Natural Resources and the Department of Environmental Quality.
His speech will be the earliest in Michigan since 1996, when Governor John Engler delivered his on January 17th.
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Can the States Get Control of Federal Deficit Spending?
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Michigan state Representative Tom McMillin (R) said he will soon introduce a resolution in Lansing to put Michigan on the bandwagon to amend the US Constitution in a way that would require the states to approve any further federal debt. The effort is called the National Debt Relief Amendment and is credited as the brainchild of RestoringFreedom.org. This move would make Michigan one of a growing number of states that are trying to reign in a federal government that many believe is out of control. If the amendment becomes part of the US Constitution, a majority of the states would have the power to dictate to Washington the terms and conditions of increasing the national debt. The debt is now at over $14,000,000,000,000 (that's trillion) and climbing, and would require $126,828 from each current taxpayer to pay off. The language of the proposed amendment is simple, as all the best parts of the Constitution are: "An increase in the federal debt requires approval from a majority of the legislatures of the separate States." Before asking states to buy-in, the idea was submitted to the Goldwater Institute, a free-market research think tank based in Arizona. The Goldwater Insitute confirmed RestoringFreedom.org's founders' belief that this amendment would actually lead to a balanced budget. Because the states cannot deficit spend and must balance their annual budgets, state-level politicians are likely to have a less profligate attitude toward mortgaging the nation, contends Byron Schlombach, director of Goldwater's Center for Economic Prosperity. The main principle driving the "tea party" movement is a backlash against federal debt and spending, including the federal stimulus bills and the passage of ObamaCare. A CNBC-AP poll from November, 2010 found that 85 percent of those surveyed thought the federal debt will harm their children's and grand children's future. The American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC) is currently drafting legislation for states to use in bringing the amendment to Congress. You can read more about the proposed amendment at The Michigan Capitol Confidential.
And, while we're talking about Constitutional amendments, there's another one to consider. The Daily Caller reports that a "Repeal Amendment" is being proposed that would allow a vote by two-thirds of the states to repeal an act of Congress. State legislators in nine states: Virginia, South Carolina, Florida, Utah, Indiana, Texas, New Jersey, Minnesota, and Georgia have expressed interest in the amendment. This idea comes from The Repeal Amendment group and is yet another indication of how dissatisfied a majority of people are with the way Congress has been behaving in recent years.
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What About Local Issues?
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 Yes, there are local issues that we should be concerned about too. How about freedom from unreasonable searches? The Transportation Security Administration is not the only agency searching everyone, without specific reasons: our local Sheriff's Department searches every person who enters the courthouse. Is it reasonable to search all of us, when the vast majority of us are law-abiding and come to the courthouse only on business? What about the cost versus the value? Or, how about the upcoming vote on additional millage for law enforcement in Saginaw County? The only reason the Board of Commissioners is pushing that is because they refused to cut spending. Same problem we have with Washington! Many people, including several of our Republican Commissioners, offered ideas to cut spending last year that were not adopted. Instead, the Board decided to ask you to raise your taxes. The only difference here is that you directly have a vote on whether to raise a tax or not. And what about the flip side of Congress spending too much money, with much of it going to local governments? If the local governments did not accept the money, then it wouldn't actually get spent. Think about that the next time your township or city says it is going to do some project with a federal grant. Should you accept the grant? Perhaps the fact that you are not willing to do the project with your own local money really means you don't need it. We're part of the problem right here at home every time we accept federal dollars for something we are not willing to spend our own money on, because Congress is simply trying to make us all happy...with the other guys' money or even worse, by borrowing the money. Here's a story about one local government that refused to take a federal grant for education, Prince William County, Virginia. Maybe we have something to learn from them?
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| Politician Is Funnier Than Host of The Daily Show |
When you corner them, liberals are funny enough to be on a comedy show. Watch San Francisco City Councilman Eric Mar try to explain the city's ban on McDonald's Happy Meals to dumbfounded correspondent Aasif Mandvi.
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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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Helene Wiltse, Chair
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