It’s actually probably a good thing that the Michigan House and Senate took an early holiday break this year and headed out of Lansing on Tuesday. They’ve pushed enough crap through in 2023. We certainly don’t need any more of their leftist policies to become law or to get enshrined in the Michigan Constitution.
The main reason the legislators are closing up shop early is because of a technicality to make sure that they are able to keep their earlier Michigan presidential primary date of February 27th.
According to the Detroit Free Press: “Tuesday starts the 90-day clock for putting into effect Democratic bills that passed but didn’t receive enough Republican support to take effect immediately, including the legislation changing the date for Michigan’s 2024 presidential primary election to Feb. 27.”
Another reason to leave early: The Democrats lost their majority in the House after two of their representatives won mayoral races, leaving a 54-54 tie of Democrats and Republicans, which stops their partisan bills until special elections are held.
So why show up to work?
The Republicans reached out to House Speaker Joe Tate (D-Detroit) to discuss a “shared power” option from now through the beginning of the year but he wasn’t interested. The Democrats don’t appear to want to work on any legislation with Republicans and they think that they should reward themselves for a productive year [1] by leaving early. Tate said that the Democrats still control the gavel.
Yes, for now, the Democrats are happy with what they have been able to accomplish so far.
Democrats are happy they were able to taken away constitutional rights that we have – and were able to add ones that we shouldn’t have.
Democrats are happy that they took away local control of energy projects and can start signing up teenagers to vote in upcoming elections.
Democrats are happy that Michigan has abortion on demand but we don’t have right-to- work laws.
Democrats are happy that Michigan’s kids don’t have to read by the third grade and they are happy that they have pushed through election laws that make elections less secure.
Speaker Tate said to reporters about the accomplishments of the Michigan Democrats in 2023, “I’m really proud about the work that we’ve been able to do. We were constrained by time and sometimes scale in terms of what we can do, but we know that we’re going to be able to come back at the top of the year and get work done.”
In other words, another sucky year if you are interested in life, liberty or the pursuit of happiness in the state of Michigan.