One good thing about Michigan's budget crisis is that it has encouraged people to take a hard look at how Michigan is spending taxpayers' money.
At this point, it seems appropriate to repeat the old joke that Congress spends money like drunken sailors...except that drunken sailors spend their own money.
The same applies to the state of Michigan, particularly to bureaucracy. Far from the myth that government has been "cut to the bone", more and more evidence is emerging about how government continues to waste our money.
The Detroit News has reported that employees who work in the public schools for 13 days can earn lifetime health care.
Pensions are very costly and contains loopholes.
Government is spending more on contracts than necessary.
Eighty government employees across Michigan planned to attend a conference on pensions in Hawaii.
Granholm is pursuing a "Washington Monument strategy", threatening to cut the most popular programs, rather than what needs to be cut.
It's worth remembering that all of this wasteful spending falls into general categories like public schools, universities, corrections, health care, and roads that few people disagree with. Just because government promises to spend money toward a certain goal doesn't mean that it will be spent wisely.
When will people ever learn that government is never more efficient than the private sector?
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