“Chair Dave Agema (R-Grandville) — best known for skipping the crucial 2007 tax hike votes to obliterate sheep with a shotgun in Siberia — suggested that the money isn’t being spent on clothes anyway by those greedy urchins.
“‘I think the hardship is negligible,’” he shrugged.
“Over in the Senate, a subcommittee decided to make kiddies buy their wares at thrift stores, which the Michigan League for Human Services (MLHS) artfully suggested perhaps sent the ‘wrong message to children that they, too, are second hand.’
“Subcommittee Chair Bruce Caswell (R-Hillsdale), a hardworking retired educator, was genuinely confused at the outrage, and added retailers and faith-based resale shops when the bill was before the full Appropriations Committee on Wednesday.
“Even former GOP Senate Majority Leader Ken Sikkema was taken aback by the move.
“‘I have to confess that I, personally, would be a little queasy about pursuing something like this,'” he told Michigan Radio on Thursday. ‘It just starts to look and feel like the Legislature is being unnecessarily punitive with poor people. And I just don’t see a lot of reason or value in pursuing things like this, to be perfectly candid with you.’
“The orphans’ fates ultimately will be decided when Agema, Caswell and four other lawmakers get together and hammer out a deal for the DHS budget in conference committee next month.
“Welcome to Pure Michigan, or as we’re marketing it now, the time of Dickens.
“‘Unfortunately, we are leaving behind many in this budget, and they are all people who are easy to target. These are groups that do not have highly paid lobbyists and expense accounts to wine and dine lawmakers,’said Gilda Jacobs, MLHS president and CEO.
“That’s something she knows a little bit about, as a former lawmaker of 10 years.
“So what’s behind these moves by the Legislature? Well, the two DHS panel chairs both live in relatively homogeneous and very conservative enclaves in the state.
“Caswell is a Calvinist who’s never had to deal much with Democrats or people with other views on social issues, taxes or government services. He believes he’s doing the right thing and rooting out inefficiencies in the budget.
“Agema … well, his general philosophy can be summed up in his solution for overworked welfare caseworkers. Rather than hire more workers or work to speed up paperwork processing times, the goat killer suggested that DHS employees be armed with guns to subdue any unruly welfare queens.
“Sen. Coleman Young II (D-Detroit) once flippantly described Republicans’ attitude toward the poor and unemployed as: “‘Too bad. It sucks to be you.'”
In Lansing, Republican Party politics: Robin Hood in reverse?
Over at MLive, Susan Demas remains on the warpath against Republican Robin-Hood-In-Reverse politics. Apparently, the GOP is ready to privatize a program that gives clothes to poor kids prior to each school year.
Under the headline “Welcome to Pure Michigan, land of Dickens,” Demas, a political analyst who writes for MIRS, doesn’t hold back in her newest column:
“In the hallowed halls of the Michigan state Capitol this week, one of the biggest debates has been over slashing a program that gives clothes to orphans.
