Headed off the cliff

"I think the hardship is negligible." —State Rep. David Agema, supporting cutting out the clothing allowance for poor children without parents

"Let 'em eat cake." —Marie Antoinette

Yes, there is a difference between those two statements. Poor, eventually headless Marie never said any such thing. But David Agema, arguably the worst member of the Legislature, did indeed say that, and worse, last week.

Agema is a narrow, far right-wing Republican, a former airline pilot from Grand Rapids. Until last week, his major claim to political fame was this: Back during the battle to balance the budget in 2007, the year there was a brief government shutdown, he was the only member of the Michigan Legislature not to show up.

Why? Well, he was off hunting sheep in Siberia, which he deemed more important. Two years later, an EPIC-MRA survey of political insiders found he was the least effective legislator.

Unfortunately, he has power now; he chairs a subcommittee overseeing the Department of Human Services budget. Agema defended cutting $9.9 million from the clothing allowance for orphans, saying he thought the money often was used for other things. Perhaps he worried they used it for contraband, like food.

The Michigan Catholic Conference was aghast, saying this "would only create greater hardships for the poor and disadvantaged children and disabled persons across the state."

Disabled? By the way, Captain Crunch also cast the deciding vote cutting State Disability Assistance for people who have gallantly struggled to live independently. They had been getting $269 a month. That's being slashed to $175.

That one, by the way, was Gov. Rick Snyder's idea. Agema, who cast the deciding vote to kick the disabled, gallantly defended it, however, with the most powerful intellectual argument his airline pilot brain could make: They don't give them any money in Indiana.

Agema is a special case of callousness, but not that special. Throughout the capitol, committees and subcommittees are weakening the things that make civilization possible. Slashing education, endangering children and the poor, toppling the former middle class into poverty.

Some of this is being done because post-automotive Michigan has little money, and we've been covering up deficits and running on fumes. But mostly, what they are doing is designed to give huge tax breaks to business.

The theory has become an article of mindless right-wing faith. Slash taxes; businesses pour in and create vast amount of new jobs.

Even at a lower rate of taxes, money comes pouring in to state coffers, and Lansing can fund education again. Maybe even buy a pony. Only trouble is that it doesn't really work very well, if at all.

They don't call it the Laffer Curve for nothing.

Kyle Melinn, editor of the respected MIRS newsletter, which covers Lansing, wrote an interesting piece last week revealing that nobody has any idea whether slashing taxes Snyder-style would create any jobs at all. He noted that Snyder and Lieutenant Gov. Brian Calley have been pulling back from their earlier confident pie-in-the-sky predictions of jobs galore.

> Email Jack Lessenberry