Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs!

by Tom Watkins
January 1, 2010

The year was 1981 and Congressman James J. Blanchard was fresh from helping rescue Chrysler Corporation by securing federal loans to keep the company’s doors open and save hundreds of thousands of good, high-paying, middle-class auto jobs.

Jim Blanchard’s success in shepherding the Chrysler bailout/loan package through Congress helped propel him into the governor’s office in 1983.

When asked on the campaign trail in 1982 what the top three issues were, Blanchard was clear: “jobs, jobs, jobs!” The Michigan economy, then like today, was in a freefall, with record high unemployment and interest rates toping 12 percent to boot.

Today, you will often hear economists and pundits lament that they have not seen Michigan’s economy in such a downward spiral since the deep recession of 1982.

Also like in 1982, the dominant issue today is the economy and jobs. In 2010 all candidates for governor will be talking about jobs. But, as the great country singer Toby Keith would belt out, there will be a “whole lotta talk — not much action!”

The public doesn’t see any political party or candidate making job creation a real priority or offering meaningful proposals to get people back to work, other than the standard political party cheers of “cut taxes” or “raise taxes.” It seems more like a Miller Lite commercial — tastes great (cut taxes) / less filling (raise taxes) — than a serious discussion about electing a new governor 10 months from now to help lead this state out of economic darkness.

Just when we need government to work the best, polls show that people’s trust in government’s ability to handle virtually any issue is at an all-time low. Someone who has lost his or her job, be it white collar or blue, does not care if the job creating idea comes from a Democrat, Republican, Libertarian or the Green Party — as long as it comes and actually gets people working again.

Challenge
Here is my challenge. All persons offering themselves up as candidates for governor, state senator, state representative or any other political office must come forth with Blanchard-type proposals — “jobs, jobs, jobs!” — that go beyond rhetoric and detail how they are going to deliver the jobs, and soon!

If they believe raising taxes is the answer, they must specify how increased taxes will help drop our depression-era unemployment rate. If their answer is cutting taxes, they must demonstrate how it will create jobs for real workers — and let me assure you, no one seeking work wants to hear about your “trickle down” theories.

If you are a Mackinac Center free-market kind of candidate who believes the “modern economic experience demonstrates overwhelmingly that the free market is a powerful engine of economic prosperity,” that’s wonderful, more power to ya, but explain how these theories will help create decent paying work.

Real people want real jobs. Far too many people have watched as Wall Street got the gold mine and the working stiff got the shaft.

What policies or actions will you take to help the set the climate to help create jobs? If you have no clue, say so. But be prepared to explain how folks are supposed to feed their families, house their kids and survive while a recovery catches up to the pain they are experiencing today.

Are you an FDR-like presidential wannabe offering a “New Deal?” Let’s be clear, no one is interested in a fireside chat full of optimism and preaching about economic activism. Yet, if you have some ideas along the lines of the Works Progress Administration and the National Recovery Administration to create new jobs for the unemployed — NOW — well, I am all ears!

Say what!? You want to raise my taxes? Tell me again how this is going create jobs. Convince me you have a plan that will get this state working again and, perhaps, I will support higher taxes. However, if you want to raise taxes to perpetuate a status quo government in need of restructuring and reform, the answer is “Hell no!”

No ideas for jobs? What about meaningful, realistic retraining opportunities that will help folks transition from what was to what will be. Look, training to work at a minimum-wage job with sub par benefits is an insult. Many of the unemployed who have fallen off the monthly statistical charts because they have been unemployed or marginally employed are actually working — it is just work for wages that are paid under the table.

Realization
Governor Granholm, as reported in the Detroit Free Press, knew on June 1, 2009, “the Michigan economy would not reach recovery on her watch” when President Obama called to inform her that GM was filing for bankruptcy the following morning. After the call from the president, the governor reportedly turned to her husband and said, “This is not going to happen while I’m governor, the turnaround for Michigan.”

Granholm has planted seeds for economic growth and prosperity that will not bear significant fruit until after she is term-limited from office. Michigan has led the parade of economic decline and unemployment for nearly a decade. Despite the recent announcements of new jobs in the film, medical, alternative energy and even the auto sectors, the reality is that we continue to lose jobs in roaring tsunamis and replace them in tear drops.

Before Granholm leaves office, the continued erosion of the auto industry, following its implosion the past year, will have cost Michigan one million jobs and continue to produce the nation’s highest unemployment numbers. Clearly, the governor has held one of the toughest jobs in America the past seven years.

Legacy
When Gov. Blanchard took office on January 1, 1983, he took over what was described as “the toughest governor’s job in America.” Michigan faced a $1.7-billion deficit, the threat of bankruptcy, record high unemployment of more than 17 percent and the worst credit rating in America. He temporarily raised taxes, created the Michigan Youth Corp and the Michigan Education Trust, and invested in education and job training.

He was re-elected in 1986 on a platform of — you guessed it — “Jobs, Jobs, Jobs and More Jobs.”

Working with leaders of business, labor, education and local government, Blanchard put together a strategy for Michigan’s future and made the tough decisions necessary to keep it on track. Although defeated in his re-election bid for a third term, his work as Michigan’s 45th governor included boosting the state’s credit rating to AA, establishing a $422-million “rainy-day fund” and producing a solvency dividend of more than $1 billion in savings from reduced borrowing costs. His aggressive small business and economic development efforts helped create more than 650,000 net new jobs. Newsweek credited him with leading “one of the most dramatic economic turnabouts in the recent history of state government.”

In 2010 Michigan is going to need an economic turnaround on steroids to put a stop to the turmoil that has gripped our state for far too long.

Our best years as a state will no longer be behind us if we lift our anchor out of the past and boldly and decisively sail into the future, ready to compete in the flattened, global economy where talent, education and skills matter and jobs and ideas can and do move around the world effortlessly.

While not producing immediate jobs, Michigan must continue to focus on preparing, retaining and attracting talent — something government actually can do. Companies will grow in and come to places where talent is nurtured and concentrated. We must set a goal to make Michigan and America the brain bank of the world, where everyone comes for deposits and withdrawals. It will require a cultural shift away from thinking that a high-paying factory job is the easy ticket to the middle class.

Want to get elected in 2010? Show us your plan for jobs — or better yet, the jobs, jobs, jobs and MORE jobs!

Tom Watkins served as deputy campaign manager in Jim Blanchard’s successful bid for governor, then as his deputy chief of staff and later chief deputy and director of the Department of Mental Health. He later served under both Governor Engler and Granholm as state superintendent of schools. He currently is a business and education consultant in the US and China.