Partisan Left’s Corporate Welfare Position Depends on Which Party Holds Office

The liberal Eclectablog decries a hole in the current state budget caused by nearly $10 billion of liabilities racked up by past corporate welfare deals, most of which were created during the administration of former Gov. Jennifer Granholm, a Democrat. The open-ended program then in place was terminated by current Gov. Rick Snyder, a Republican, who replaced it with a subsidy program that is not open-ended.

Nevertheless the recent Eclectablog post complains, “Republicans seem to think they can suck millions upon millions of dollars out of our state budget by handing out gifts in the form of tax breaks to corporations without causing problems.”

Flashback to a 2010 post, when Eclectablog owner Chris Savage, who is also the chair of the Washtenaw County Democratic Party, called some corporate welfare handouts “investments,” which were worthy because they went to “an industry and an energy source that needs a kick start.”

ForTheRecord says: Free-market think tanks such as the Mackinac Center for Public Policy in Michigan and others around the nation have consistently opposed government subsidies and selective tax breaks for corporations and developers — without regard to which political party held office at the time. The truth is, Michigan politicians from both major parties have repeatedly voted to sustain and expand corporate welfare programs. Insincere partisan blame games like the one highlighted here are one way that Democratic and Republican members of the political class get away with keeping the taxpayer loot flowing to their respective cronies.