By John Lindstrom
Publisher
Posted: July 9, 2015 11:56 AM

An item on U.S. Rep. Mike Bishop’s Facebook page caught our attention the other day.

In it, Mr. Bishop (R-Rochester) said: “Watching Greece defiantly and brazenly march down this path of self-destruction brings back unwanted memories of the Granholm regime. Same results.”

Really? The same results? Ah, no.

If two people ever came close to outright hatred of one another during the time they were in state government, it was Mr. Bishop and former Governor Jennifer Granholm. The two, for whatever reasons, never got along. The animosity started well before Ms. Granholm was governor and Mr. Bishop was Senate majority leader.

The two sparred famously when Ms. Granholm was attorney general and Mr. Bishop was in the House. He chaired a committee which held a hearing on a bill to put limits on the attorney general’s powers (a bill former Governor John Engler was interested in). Ms. Granholm called it shameful; Mr. Bishop asked if she were a lawyer, and well, things just never got better.

The nadir of whatever relationship they had occurred in 2007 when the Legislature and Ms. Granholm had a standoff on the upcoming 2007-08 budget. After some six straight years of budget cuts, she had called for tax increases to restore some services. Mr. Bishop led the Republican effort to block tax increases and continue with cuts; Ms. Granholm revised her tax proposals, but still pushed for tax increases. Eventually enough Republicans voted for the tax increases, but that came as the state government shut down from midnight September 30 to about 4 a.m., October 1. You missed the shutdown? Gosh, you weren’t one of the 200 to 300 people forced to watch the late night soap opera then.

We all have unpleasant memories in our lives, and few of us have the grace to finally let go of grudges. But, please, even as bad as the state’s situation got in 2007 (and it got much worse later on) it was nothing like what Greece is suffering through now.

Michigan was never in danger of bankruptcy, never in real danger of defaulting (the worry was raised, but the state was prepared to pay its bonds. Unlike Greece, the state had the money; it was just a matter of how payment would be authorized). It succeeded in maintaining a high credit rating despite its ongoing economic struggles. The state continued to win praise for its overall financial management. Ms. Granholm never threatened to defy the markets or the state’s creditors. Nor had Michigan been bailed out during its struggles as Greece had been. No banks were closed. Credit card transactions were not denied. People were not limited to getting $60 a day. Relatively bad as it was, Michigan’s unemployment rate did not hit 26 percent (which it did in Greece last December).

And, anyone present during the siege of 2007 knows that it wasn’t just one person who stubbornly stuck to a position that caused the devastating shutdown (yeah, yeah, I know that four hours while the rest of the state was sleeping was devastating to … well, pride, I guess. Sure didn’t seem to affect much else other than some campers at state parks that got kicked out of their camp sites). No, definitely more than one person demonstrated stubbornness during those months.