Last month, I went on Tony Conley’s radio show on WILS in Lansing to talk about conservative activist Jack Hoogendyk’s shameful lies and scare tactics about Medicaid expansion in Michigan. I predicted to Tony that Hoogendyk would argue with no evidence that the federal government would break its promise to fund Medicaid in the future,…
Following our blog post about MLive and the Mackinac Center yesterday, I have been notified by the Saginaw-Bay City editor that they will no longer publish bill and vote tracking information from the biased MichiganVotes.org website. After speaking with the regional editor, Rob Clark, I believe he was simply trying to provide his readers with…
Pop quiz. Guess which corporate front group funded by billionaire Dick DeVos is now providing legislative tracking to MLive.com? That would be the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Today MLive began a new weekly series where they will “publish descriptions of bills and corresponding votes from the Michigan House and Senate as compiled by MichiganVotes.org.”…
While the continuing controversy over Dave Agema’s hateful Facebook repost could have been an opportunity for the GOP to make their tent a little bit bigger, they haven’t seized it. And while a few moderate Republicans have called on Dave Agema to step down, elected officials and party leaders like Gov. Snyder, Speaker Bolger, and…
Occasionally the Mackinac Center digs into their file of donors, finds one who isn’t afraid of having their identity disclosed, and runs a profile on them. One of their recent profiles was interesting, to say the least. In March, they featured a guy named Jack Engelhart, who founded Quality Pool Supply. How was Jack’s pool…
Elected officials are accountable to those they represent. In 2010, Gov. Snyder presented himself as a no nonsense businessman who would move us beyond the partisan gridlock that had gripped Michigan with simple, fair, and efficient solutions that would benefit the common good. The nerd in him demanded concrete goals and graphs so that we…
Michigan’s legislature is back in session today, and rather than focusing on limiting LGBT rights or rigging our elections it’s about time they focus on something important: like equal pay for equal work. Next month, 50 years will have passed since John F. Kennedy signed the landmark Equal Pay Act, but women still earn 77…
Peter Pan was afraid of his shadow. It reminded him that one day he’d have to grow up and leave Neverland. Republican lawmakers that still stand with Dave Agema – like Reps. Ken Yonker and Mike Shirkey – are Peter Pan and the Lost Boys. They’ve even got their own Neverland. It’s the birthplace of…
As the Dave Agema scandal reaches its eighth day, Republican leaders are still silent on whether his opinions on LGBT people are factual or appropriate for a party leader. But Republican politicians and ex-politicians can’t jump on Agema’s bandwagon fast enough, and even launched an online petition demonstrating their support. Rep. Mike Shirkey signed the…
After trying to have it both ways in a weekend interview with WWMT, saying he didn’t write the original post but standing by it, then saying on Facebook he stood by the hateful screed, Dave Agema doubled down in a radio interview he probably thought no one would hear. The interview was with WPIQ in…