Real Hope and Change with Hoekstra and Romney

Peter Hoekstra

 Please forgive my presumption in commenting on the contentious Senate and Presidential race taking place in the Great Lakes State, yet I feel compelled to get the word out at least one last time before November 6th. With a declining population per capita and the close-call with the automotive industry in the state of Michigan, nerves are rattled in Michigan. However, every Senator in the Union must honor the needs of every constituent in their state, and the votes which they cast affect everyone in the country. The record of poor choices on the part of US Senator Debbie Stabenow should be enough to discourage anyone from giving her another term in the Senate, and for that matter permitting President Obama one more term in the White House.

I am asking that every voter in Michigan reconsider casting a vote for one more term of Debbie Stabenow. She is a lock-step tax-and-spend liberal in line with President Barack Obama’s abortive domestic agenda. His policies of spend and spend some more are bankrupting this country. With an unprecedented 43 million Americans on food stamps, with more than twenty million people out of work, and an untold number having all but given up on looking for employment, this country needs a major turn-around, and former US House Rep Pete Hoekstra will assist in this necessary restructuring in Washington politics and Michigan restoration.

Stabenow was earning a low favorability rating even before the 2012 election kicked off earlier this year. In addition the wasteful 2009 stimulus, Stabenow voted for ObamaCare, a health insurance mandate which is already killing jobs in Michigan. Because of the medical device tax, Michigan manufacturers are scaling back their workforce. The law is chock-full of tax hikes on families and small businesses, including an excise tax on charitable hospitals and early withdrawals from health savings accounts. Dr. Ben Carson, a renowned Michigan neurosurgeon, that ObamaCare will hurt minorities, as the law relies on the same failed structure of centralized distribution implemented by Canada and Great Britain. One Medicare recipient shared that he is facing a drastic reduction in access to the entitlement because ObamaCare cuts $716 billion out of the program. ObamaCare is a bad bill of tax-hikes which has diminished access while increasing costs, and Stabenow was one more vote for this excessive mandate.

Native son Mitt Romney is now enjoying a dead-heat against President Barack Obama. The Detroit News has just endorsed Mitt Romney for President, a contender who promises a different path compared to the defeated hype of the incumbent, whose programs have created more problems than they were set out to solve. Now, the noise on the Internet and on the blogs has claimed that Mitt Romney wanted the Detroit auto industry to go bankrupt, a cold-hearted portrayal which does not reflect the complexity of the situation nor the solution that Governor Romney proposed in a poorly-titled op-ed in the New York Times.

Contrary to the cold first impression of “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt” , Romney urged in this op-ed for a structured bankruptcy which would amend the over-lavish pension obligations of the company, protecting workers' jobs and the financial future of the company. He also targeted the excesses of the executive class in the Big Three automotive companies, demanding that new leadership and a more respectable management culture replace the old executive network, which had failed in marketing and labor relations. Romney also argued for better automotive leadership which honored the interests and the needs of the employees. Overall, Romney’s reforms centered on one major theme:
“In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.”

Because the federal government gave General Motors a check without demanding structural changes, a move which took millions out of public employee retirement funds in Indiana, the move will more likely delay a growing demise off an industry which still needs to implement major reforms. Despite the measured proposals offered by Romney, President Obama still falsely castigates the Massachusetts Governor as a cold-hearted plutocrat. However, even Obama-promoter and talk-show host David Letterman of the Late Show has shared his second thoughts about the President’s noticeable lack of integrity on this issue. As much as guest speaker Rachel Maddow tried to spin Obama’s reckless indictments against his challenger, Romney did not then or now push for a blanket bankruptcy on the auto industry.

As for Pete Hoekstra, a former House Rep and member of the House Intelligence Committee, he belongs in the class of legislators who wants to fight against high prices and higher taxes. He will help repeal ObamaCare. Though Hoekstra faces a double-digit deficit at the moment, with two weeks remaining before election, I hope that Michigan voters will support him and other representatives who understand that high gas prices, high food prices, declining schools, high unemployment have remained the growing norm in Michigan and throughout the country because of the failing policies of Barack Obama, paralleled and supported by US Senator Debbie Stabenow.

On November 6^th, send a message of real hope and change. President Obama and Senator Stabenow had the chance, yet they failed to deliver. Elect Mitt Romney for President and Pete Hoesktra for US Senate.