In a recent Detroit News opinion piece, Governor Gretchen Whitmer opined that she released her Fiscal Year 2023 budget - a budget bolstered by nearly $5 billion in federal funds left over from prior COVID relief.
Despite her political talking points, Governor Whitmer’s budget isn’t a reflection of savvy negotiations or sound business principles - she’s merely playing Santa Claus with federal giveaway dollars in an attempt to salvage Michigan’s economy after her policies devastated our small businesses and workers.
As she touts her spending spree, it is important to remember what Governor Whitmer has done before and during the pandemic to undermine Michigan’s economy and target businesses.
Our nation’s founders constructed a system of government that relied on co-equal powers between the three branches of government, designed to protect individual liberty and prevent the accumulation of power in the hands of a few. Yet Governor Whitmer abandoned Constitutional principles and the separation of power to perpetuate a state of emergency, govern unilaterally by fiat, and purposely excluded the people’s elected representatives from having any voice in the state’s response to COVID-19.
Her unilateral lockdown orders – some of the strictest and most damaging in the nation - were unnecessarily cruel and irrational, leaving too many businesses shuttered and too many children with permanent setbacks in education and development. Governor Whitmer’s “go-at-it-alone” approach failed in every regard – it did not have a meaningful impact on the spread of COVID-19, failed to keep Michigan’s economy afloat, and failed a generation of students and their families.
During the so-called “State of Emergency” that the Whitmer administration argued warranted strict limitations on Michiganders’ freedoms and the exclusion of the legislature, the governor and several members of her cabinet were caught flagrantly violating the orders and COVID policies they supposedly supported and enforced.
In March 2021, while urging Michiganders not to travel out of state to help stop the spread of the virus, Governor Whitmer traveled to Florida to visit a relative. She boarded a private plane owned by three prominent political donors.
In April 2021, Governor Whitmer’s health director unabashedly traveled to Alabama with her family without being fully vaccinated as the state grappled with significant upticks of COVID. She didn’t believe she needed to follow the same guidance she imposed on Michigan citizens, and she clearly wasn’t terrified of catching COVID.
Also in April 2021, Whitmer’s chief operating officer traveled to Florida for spring break. These were not lower-ranking bureaucrats - these were key cabinet members defying the same orders they were tasked to enforce.
In May 2021, a picture posted on social media showed the Governor and 11 friends caught in an East Lansing bar squeezed together around three tables - without masks or social distancing, violating state guidelines.
“Rules for Thee, Not for Me” is the mantra of Governor Whitmer’s administration - rules and restrictions are for regular people, not the political elites and ‘lockdown liberals’ who have consistently prioritized their own power over public health.
Concerning the governor’s record since taking office, we need to begin with two of her campaign promises – transparency and roads. Her multi-point Sunshine Plan was promoted to finally bring about moving the legislature and governor’s office from the shadows by forcing both to respond to FOIA requests. Neither has happened. Michigan was rated as dead last by the Center for Public Integrity in 2015 and not much has changed since.
“Fixing the Damn Roads” was also a flop. In her first year in office, Whitmer attempted to raise the gasoline tax by 45 cents per gallon to fund road repairs - a policy so toxic and harmful to working-class Michiganders a majority of Democrats could not support it.
In 2021, Detroit Public Schools won the award of the worst math scores in the National Assessment of Educational Progress’ 40-year history. Couple the disheartening standardized test scores with the nation’s lowest graduation rate, according to NPR, and you have a governor that has utterly failed Detroit students. Another sad commentary about the Whitmer administration’s management of our most precious resource, children.
With the 2022 election approaching quickly, Governor Whitmer’s rhetoric has taken a sharp turn towards the center - a desperate attempt to reverse the damage of the past three years. Using the federal government’s credit card for a shopping spree, Whitmer hopes this gifted cash will mask the pain and hardship that her unilateral orders and crushing policies have inflicted across our state.
So, as we look at the 2023 Whitmer budget and the fact that the available billions came from the Biden credit card, its plain to see behind the curtain that this administration has made a mess of Michigan and the governor is now hoping that this gifted inflationary money will mask all the pain that her unilateral policies and management style have inflicted across the state.
The Biden/Whitmer handouts are not free - we’re paying for them each week at the grocery store and at the gas pump, as skyrocketing inflation continues to make life more difficult for millions of Michiganders.
Governor Whitmer’s “leadership” has failed Michigan families, Michigan workers, and Michigan businesses. No amount of federal dollars will erase her lockdown legacy and record of corruption, hypocrisy, and partisan power grabs.
Garrett Soldano is an entrepreneur, public speaker, and philanthropist running to be the governor of Michigan.