HOUSE DEMS ON $300 MILLION SPENDING SPREE: Republicans call for reforms, not new spending in community health budget.

On the day that the House Democrats inflated a 30-foot duck outside of the capitol and went on a spending spree inside it, House Republicans called on the Democrat majority to 'get real.'

The House Democrats’ budget proposal for the Department of Community Health is not grounded in reality and relies too heavily on federal stimulus money to be a viable recommendation, prompting the House GOP to vote against the proposal that adds nearly $300 million in new or expanded programs.

"It's time to stop ducking the real issues," said House Republican Leader Kevin Elsenheimer. "During every hour that’s wasted working on impractical and unworkable budgets Michigan loses another 40 jobs. Michigan families are looking for real leadership from their government right now, and that means making tough choices and scaling back spending - not pulling cheap publicity stunts and passing unrealistic budgets.”

The House GOP questioned the wisdom of proposing more than $280 million in additional DCH spending when the state is currently spending $25 million-a-week more than it is taking in and relying on one-time stimulus dollars, which repeats the same kind of short-sighted thinking that mired the state in financial trouble to begin with.

“While many of the programs can be legitimized, we are not dealing with reality. The reality is that we are experiencing an $800 million deficit this year,” said state Rep. Kevin Green, Republican vice chair of the Department of Community Health appropriations subcommittee.
“It will be impossible to continue funding new programs or old programs at the current level next year when we don’t have that stimulus money to plug the gaps. Some realism needs to be injected into this budget in place of this foolishness, and it needs to happen quickly.”

Elsenheimer said he feared the governor and the Democrats were posturing to create a new doomsday scenario to make a case for another tax increase similar to what they did in 2007.

“Michigan families were promised cuts and reforms after the last tax increase, but they have seen neither,” Elsenheimer said. “This budget is emblematic of a larger problem -- Lansing does not have a revenue problem, it has a spending problem. With unemployment well over 12 percent, Michigan families can’t afford another tax increase to bailout state government - again.”