Whitmer’s Budget Fails To Address The Problems Facing Michigan That She Created
Whitmer’s Budget Fails To Address The Problems Facing Michigan That She Created “Gretchen Whitmer’s budget priorities aren’t enough for working class Michiganders who are struggling because of the policies she put in place,” said Gustavo Portela, MIGOP Communications Director. “We need equitable recovery from her policies and her budget priorities simply don’t reflect that. Our unemployment remains the highest in the Midwest and among the highest in the nation. We need an economy that works for everyone, not just the well-connected like Gretchen Whitmer. A working economy is what she inherited from the previous Republican administration and this November it is precisely what voters can expect when they elect a Republican governor and retire Gretchen Whitmer.”
- Michigan’s economy is not working for working class families.
- There are 191,600 fewer people employed in Michigan since she took office.
- There are 42,400 fewer manufacturing workers employed in Michigan since she took office.
- Michigan lost 1,100 motor vehicle manufacturing jobs just last month.
- Nearly one-quarter of Michigan’s Leisure and Hospitality jobs lost during her lockdown’s have not returned.
- Michigan’s unemployment rate is the highest in the Midwest, denying hundreds of thousands of Michiganders the dignity of work.
- Last month’s U.S. Labor Department data shows that unemployment is increasing in the Detroit-Warren-Dearborn metro area.
- Half of small businesses closed during the Whitmer lockdowns.
- Michigan is only one of four states to experience negative economic growth in both 2019 and 2020.
- Gas prices rose in Michigan by 20 cents per gallon in just the last month and up 87 cents in the last year.
- Michigan still does not guarantee clean water to all its residents.
- The Whitmer Administration knew for three years that Benton Harbor’s water was not safe to drink and Whitmer did nothing.
- Benton Harbor Mayor Marcus Muhammed said that the Whitmer administration did not provide Benton Harbor with the resources it needed to fix the lead pipes.
- Jackson reported that they are still waiting on their lead lines to be replaced.
- Saginaw residents were told that they are still connected to dangerous led lines
- Crime is up across Michigan.
- The violent crime rate in Michigan rose 8.98 percent in 2020, nearly twice the rate increase nationally of 4.65 percent.
- In 2018, Michigan ranked 14th in the violent crime rate in the nation. Under just two years of Whitmer’s leadership Michigan rose to the 10th most violent state in the union in 2020.
- Violent crime has been increasing across Michigan. In 2020:
- Violent crime in Saginaw increased by 44.9 percent.
- Violent crime in Lansing increased by 28.7 percent.
- Violent crime in Flint increased by 25.2 percent.
- Violent crime in Kalamazoo increased by 13.7 percent.
- Violent crime in Grand Rapids increased by 11.5 percent.
- Violent crime in Detroit increased by 10.25 percent.
- Police officers are being burnt out and morale is low.
- The number of law enforcement officers in the Michigan decreased in 2020.
- In 2021, Lansing Police Chief Daryl Green resigned citing political tensions in the aftermath of the 2020 riots and blamed the defund the police narratives.
- Whitmer still won’t admit she screwed up on nursing homes.
- The auditor general found that Michigan health officials unreported long-term care facility and nursing home deaths by 42 percent.
- Whitmer ignored warnings from the Healthcare Association of Michigan (Nursing Home Association) who advised Whitmer to isolate COVID-19 infected nursing home residents from the general population.
- Whitmer ignored the warnings and kept COVID-19 positive patients in the same facility.
- Data was available in April 2020 that showed nursing home deaths were rising.
- In July 2020, Whitmer vetoed a bill requiring COVID-19 positive patients to be transferred out of their nursing home to keep healthy residents safe.
- In December 2020, Whitmer vetoed legislation which would join Michigan in a 34-state Nursing license reciprocity compact allowing Michigan to recognize out-of-state nurses and allow them to practice in Michigan.
- The Michigan Nurses Association President Julia Schneider blasted the veto saying “participation in the compact would have been particularly helpful during the current COVID pandemic, as it would support needed nurse staffing in Michigan.”
- In November 2019, Whitmer slashed $25 million in funding for rural hospitals which was expected to cause a decline in quality care.
- Michigan Hospital Association President John Krasinski said, “the impact of these cuts will be significant and will make it much more difficult to preserve and improve access and quality of care, especially for the communities served by small and rural hospitals.”
- Michigan’s hospitals are overcrowded.
- As of January 20, 38.1 percent of healthcare facilities in Michigan are experiencing staffing shortages.
- The Detroit News highlighted the condition of MyMichigan Medical Center Gratiot in Alma revealing that staff are overworked, exhausted and being pushed to their breaking point.
- Hospital directors and nursed reported that the level of incoming patients is unsustainable.
- Patients are queued in hours-long waits, sometimes days, for inpatient beds.
- Many nurses had to pick up more shifts on top of their normally schedules grueling 12-hour shifts.
- Sparrow hospital in Lansing reached a breaking point:
- Sparrow hospital last fall announced that they are stopping all elective surgeries in response to rising COVID-19 cases.
- Reports surfaced in October that the emergency room at Sparrow was overflowing and patients were lined up in stretchers in the hallways and the expectation is that this will worsen as COVID cases rise.
- In July, Sparrow had 900 open positions including 150 nursing positions not filled.
- Midland’s MidMichigan Medical Center had to divert ambulances to cities as far away as Flint due to hospital overcrowding.
- The Unemployment Insurance Agency (UIA) is still not fixed.
- UIA Director Julie Dale testified that she has no idea how much fraud took place during the distribution of the CARES Act relief money for unemployment workers, refused to say who ordered the fraud protection protocols to be turned off and does not even know who was in charge of fraud during most of 2020-2021.
- An inspector general’s audit concluded that $8.5 billion were lost due to fraudulent payments while Michigan stripped away its fraud protection protocols.
- It is no wonder why 65 percent of Michiganders believe the state is on the wrong track economically and only 40 percent of voters would commit to voting for Whitmer again.
- Whitmer’s budget is dangling shiny objects into the air as she falsely hopes that Michiganders will be distracted from how horrible of a job she has done at the helm of the state.