Gov. Gretchen Whitmer and the truth are often parted.

So it was last week when Whitmer sat down with Roop Raj of Fox 2 News and claimed she never forced nursing homes to take COVID-positive patients. She presented the idea as Republican propaganda, disinformation spread by her challenger, Tudor Dixon.

But it’s true. Not only did Whitmer order nursing homes to accept COVID-positive patients, she kept doing so months after other governors, including New York’s Andrew Cuomo, stopped the practice.

As Charlie LeDuff reported in Deadline Detroit:

Big Gretch is gaslighting the public. The sick were in fact commingled with the healthy. You might remember those nursing home hubs, those 21 hand-selected nursing homes of last resort in Michigan that accepted the Covid sick when there was no other place for them to go.

Those homes were supposed to be special places. Places that had separate nursing and janitorial staff, and separate and isolated wings following special protocols, to protect the healthy people living there. ....

Keep in mind the independent report from the state auditor general shows at least 2,400 more people died in the state’s collective nursing facilities than Whitmer health officials acknowledged in their limited count — a full 42 percent higher than the self-reported count by these facilities, placing Michigan well above the national average.

In her interview with Raj, Whitmer distanced herself from Cuomo, and said she worked more closely with the governors of Ohio, Indiana and Wisconsin. She signed seven executive orders regarding long-term care in 2020.

“We saved thousands of lives with our policies,” Whitmer said. “If (challenger Tudor Dixon) had been governor during COVID, thousands more people would have died.”

But Michigan had higher death rates than its Midwestern neighbors, and it closed down more businesses. Our lockdowns lasted the longest. What worked, exactly?

On Oct. 25, there was an audible gasp across Michigan when Gov. Whitmer said students were only out of school “for three months.”

That claim has been fact-checked within an inch of its life. But Whitmer repeated it again to Raj.

“So under my order, schools were closed for three months, and then it largely went to local districts,” Whitmer said.

This ignores a three-week, state-ordered pause on high school and college in-person classes in November 2020. And it wasn’t until January 2021 that Whitmer more or less ordered school districts to return to in-person instruction in March.

While Whitmer was closing down high schools, she was putting high-risk people, the elderly, in the most high-risk circumstances.

CDC data show that 75% of COVID deaths are among the elderly, people 65 or older.

Whitmer was giving daily COVID press conferences at one point. Did the elderly ever merit 75% of her attention? Or 50%? Or was an outsize focus placed on taping up the seed section or demanding that people not travel between their own homes, lest they touch gas pumps and spread COVID?

Whitmer is minimizing school shutdowns and disavowing her nursing home policy. And she’s walking away from her defenders, in the media and the public, who insisted throughout that she was saving lives.

Raj asked Whitmer several questions from viewers. Mine was among them: If a governor can’t fix global inflation, did the public ask too much in expecting her to fix a global virus?

Whitmer answered: “We were all confronting a virus that was wreaking havoc on different parts of the country and different times. Detroit metropolitan hospitals were full in the early days. We had to move fast — faster than other states did — with lives on the line.”

At this late date, “We didn’t know what we didn’t know” is the best defense the governor can offer.

Michigan’s COVID policy failed. And defeat is an orphan.

James David Dickson is managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email him at dickson@mackinac.org.

Every year the Michigan Legislature and the governor hammer out a budget to properly fund the state. The operative words are “properly fund,” and if we scrutinize the details of the 2023 budget, we will see failure.

Too much Lansing spending could be described as “improper funding.”

Residents witness the back-and-forth rhetoric between the executive and legislative branch. After all the mudslinging and posturing, they inevitably come into agreement. But the deals made often include pet projects that are not necessary for the government to function.

The 2023 budget is no exception. For example, Grand Rapids was given $30 million from state taxpayers to build a new amphitheater. The Traverse City Curling Club was awarded $2 million. How long will it be before every town demands the same for its sport or recreational activity of choice? Why do these cities get taxpayer treats while others do not?

The issue is not just lack of accountability and waste. How many legislators who voted for the budget knew these items were in it? The most recent budget, passed in July, was 516 pages long. According to Craig Mauger of the The Detroit News, several legislators said they did not know about some of the pork — specifically, $10 million for a Chaldean foundation — that was in the bill.

Lawmakers not having a thorough understanding of the state budget is unacceptable. It should be unthinkable.

But the pattern repeats and gets even worse in Washington, D.C. Congress routinely votes on bills running hundreds or even thousands of pages, in a time frame that doesn’t allow for reading and understanding.

As House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California, famously said, “We have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it, away from the fog of the controversy.”

In 2018, an omnibus bill was created in secret and only shared with Congress 18 hours before a vote. The bill was 2,232 pages long.

The job of a Michigan legislator is considered full-time. With a $71,685 annual salary and a $10,800 annual allowance, Michigan’s state lawmakers are among the most highly remunerated in the United States. But a report from MLive in 2018 stated that the Michigan Senate was on track to meet only 82 days that year, and the House of Representatives was likely to only meet 83 days. There are comparable numbers every election cycle.

Take a look at the current session schedule. Dates highlighted in gray are session days. Most days on the calendar are not gray. The scheduled time off typically includes a break for hunting season, which will be upon us in a couple weeks.

Legislators get two to three weeks for spring break, which includes Passover and Easter. In the fall, they take a break for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur.

Summer sessions are sparse, depending on the budget and whether there are time-sensitive issues. In an election year, not much work gets done in October. Apparently, elected officials need extended time away from lawmaking to prove to voters why they should be re-elected to make laws.

Michigan legislators make on average $71,685 with a $10,800 annual expense allowance, according to Ballotpedia. This does not include their benefits package. Only three states — California, New York and Pennsylvania — pay their lawmakers more than Michigan does. 

In fairness, there is more to the job than session days. Legislators are supposed to engage in district activities, which on occasion can include weekends. Some legislators hold district office hours to meet with constituents.

But representatives have enough time off to read bills, understand them, and ask questions to deepen that understanding. Lawmakers who do not take the time to ensure taxpayer dollars are protected do not deserve to hold the office they were given by their bosses, the voters.

Jamie A. Hope is assistant managing editor of Michigan Capitol Confidential. Email her at hope@mackinac.org.