The Michigan legislature appears to have finally put a stop to an outrageous practice left over from the Granholm administration. After a nine-month delay, the Senate passed a bill that was identical to a bill previously passed in the House. Governor Rick Snyder should have it on his desk by the end of next week and he expected to sign it.

"This is the final policy piece that clarifies that these people are not public employees," said the bill sponsor, Senator Dave Hildenbrand, (Repurlican), during the floor debate over the legislation. "This is to finally end the union dues being taken from those who are not public employees but just people taking care of relatives."  The scheme goes back to 2007, and more than 60,000 Michigan home health care providers have been entangled.  These people have had union dues extracted from the Medicaid payments they receive to care for family members.  The Service Employees International Union has collected $29 million so far, despite the fact that there is NO employer to collectively bargain against.

You can read details of the situation at the Michigan Capitol Confidential.

According to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), the budget proposed by House Budget Committee Chair Representative Paul Ryan would be balanced by 2040.

2040??  Yes, by his own numbers, the only time the budget would even be cut is in 2013 and 2014, and then by just $94 billion and $54 billion. After that, spending would increase every single year under a new baseline. Considering the $15.57 trillion national debt we now have, one has to ask if even Paul Ryan, generally considered a budget cutter, is serious.

But maybe this is how you do things in Washington.  The spending cuts in the first 2 years are current and real, so that's a good thing.  The rest of the next 26 years won't ever happen as shown in this budget, because the future budgets will be changed every year!  So there are real cuts now, and we can still work on cutting in each budget to come.  If you would like to read the plan in detail, you can download Ryan's Path To Prosperity.

Herman Cain At Jack Hoogendyk Rally