Michigan State Representative Kathy Angerer sent to her constituents an Email explaining the fiscal dilemma that the State was in, and her work in attempting to arrive at a resolution. The Democrats want to raise taxes, and the Republicans want to reduce spending. The Governor has resolved to shut down government at Sunday, Midnight if there was no resolution by that time.

I sent this Email to State Representative Kathy Angerer in response to her Email concerning the Michigan Dilemma.

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Back in 1992, my Congressman, William D. Ford, Democrat, Michigan, sent out a flier to his interested constituents about the pending free trade agreements in the Congress, requesting our views on the legislation. I wrote back: "It is well known in this country that the United States has a well advanced economic system and society; advanced beyond the economies of some of the other countries with which we trade. Our working people are protected in the workplace by legislation which requires a safe workplace environment. Our manufacturers are required to clean discharges into the environment to limit pollution. Many working people have contracted with employers a retirement program, and health insurance. Compensations for labor have advanced commensurate with the liberties and freedoms of the Americans, allowing Americans to have a more autonomous lifestyle. The United States is being invaded by goods from foreign countries that have provided a haven to our manufacturers who wish to avoid the costs of a clean environment, and a free people. Some of these countries have manufacturers of their own who avoid these responsibilities. The Americans cannot compete on this type of "free trade" basis. To compete, the Americans would have to regress back fifty to one hundred years, a move hardly acceptable by the American people."

I wrote about Adam Smith, a British economist who has been quoted by American statesmen, and Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States, who wrote, in his book Wealth of Nations, published in 1776, "If the free importation of foreign manufactures were permitted, several of the home manufactures would probably suffer, and some of them, perhaps, go to ruin altogether...". He noted that "two great engines for enriching the country, therefore, were restraints upon importation, and encouragements to exportation." Mr. Smith had studied under Professor Francis Hutcheson, who had written, in his book System of Moral Philosophy, in the chapter Of the Nature of Civil Laws and their Execution: "Foreign materials should be imported and even premiums given, when necessary, that all our own hands may be employed; and that, by exporting them again manufactured, we may obtain from abroad the price of our labours. Foreign manufactures and products ready for consumption should be made dear to the consumer by high duties, if we cannot altogether prohibit the consumption;..."

Congressman Ford voted against the free trade and fast track legislation.

What Adam Smith and Francis Hutcheson are saying is: If you do A, then B will happen.

A — Eliminate duties and tariffs on goods imported into this country from the lesser developed countries.

B — Manufactures will increase in the lesser developed countries, and will decrease in this country; some manufactures here will close down; they will move their businesses to the lesser developed countries; workers in this country will lose their jobs; the economy in this country will shrink.

Well, the Congress did A, and B happened.

The following Michigan Legislators, with their federal legislative districts noted, voted for one or more of the free trade agreements, and fast track legislation:

Pete Hoekstra (2), Vernon Ehlers (3), Dave Camp (4), Fred Upton (6), Nick Smith (7), Mike Rogers 8, Joseph Knollenberg (9), Candace Miller (10), Thaddeus McCotter (11), Sander Levin (12), John Dingell (15).

Senators Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow both voted for more than one of the free trade agreements.

These legislators were warned about this over 200 years ago and they did it anyway. Now Michigan, along with many other States, is paying the price of their folly. So, let government shut down for 2 or 3 months, without paying any of those on government payroll. This should save a lot of money. The named legislators can be looked to for the reasons for the shutdown.