What if Snyder had a Dem Legislature to deal with?
Susan Demas’ column this week for Dome Magazine takes a look at a big “What if.”
Imagine how things would be different in Michigan if Gov. Rick Snyder had to deal with a Legislature controlled or partially controlled by the opposition party, just as Govs. Milliken, Blanchard, Engler and Granholm were forced to compromise with the House or Senate leadership from the other side of the aisle.
Demas, editor and publisher of Inside Michigan Politics, lists a number of items on the conservative agenda that likely would not have been adopted over the past several years if divided government gave Democrats the power to force negotiations with the Republican governor – or to block legislation that ventured too far to the right.
Here’s an excerpt from the Demas piece, which carries the headline, “The Governor That Could Have Been”:
No one really believes Snyder is a rabid partisan or true-believer culture warrior, but acting as such has been the price of doing business with those who are. If he’d had a Democratic House to tangle with, however, he could have blamed it for blocking the far-right agenda (and a smart speaker would have played along with the political kabuki to win concessions in fiscal and education policy).
A Democratic House also could have provided Snyder with some much-needed votes for his more moderate policy objectives, like the long-delayed Medicaid expansion and his half-a-loaf road funding plan. And some of these initiatives, like the state-run Obamacare health exchange, rotted on the vine.
Perhaps having a check on complete Republican power could have prevented some black eyes on Snyder’s record, like alleged abuses at the Grand Rapids Home for Veterans, as well as and health and criminal infractions related to a private food service contact in prisons.
It’s doubtful that the biggest tragedy on Snyder’s watch, the Flint water crisis, could have been averted completely. But … the now-shuttered legislative panel investigating the water crisis never called Snyder to testify –– saving him hours of embarrassment (which he already been subjected to during a congressional hearing). And the Legislature has made no move to question the $3.4 million in legal fees Snyder has racked up and charged to taxpayers.
