Michigan Sets Example For Obama On Handling Economic Crisis: Bulldozers

I'll bet you didn't see this on the evening news. The UK Telegraph is reporting that a "radical experiment" is underway in Genesee County, Michigan - specifically the City of Flint. Faced with massive budget shortfalls due to a shrinking tax base, unemployment at 20% and outward migration, Flint has decided to downsized itself by as much as 40%. You may not have noticed but the Obama administration has.

"The U.S. government is looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature."

"Already, some streets peter out into woods or meadows, no trace remaining of the homes that once stood there."

So who's the braintrust behind this idea? Meet Dan Kildee, the Genesee County Treasurer. Dan is a fixture in Genesee County Democrat Party politics; he was first elected to public office at the age of 18. His 'innovative' ideas for using Michigan's tax foreclosure law as a "tool for community development and neighborhood stabilization..." helped him complete a "Fannie Mae Foundation Fellowship at the Harvard University Kennedy School of Government." Well. Isn't that special?

The name Kildee is well-known in Michigan politics; Dan's uncle is Democrat Congressman Dale Kildee, who represents the 5th District - including the City of Flint. I wonder if Uncle Dale helped bring Dan's honey-I-shrunk-the-city scheme to Obama's attention?

Having outlined his strategy to Barack Obama during the election campaign, Mr Kildee has now been approached by the US government and a group of charities who want him to apply what he has learnt to the rest of the country.

Mr Kildee said he will concentrate on 50 cities, identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution, an influential Washington think-tank, as potentially needing to shrink substantially to cope with their declining fortunes.

Most are former industrial cities in the "rust belt" of America's Mid-West and North East. They include Detroit, Philadelphia, Pittsburgh, Baltimore and Memphis.

Don't get me wrong; I'm not opposed to any city tearing down abandoned homes and crack houses - but that isn't what's happening in Flint. This program is another piece in the grand Obama scheme to run our lives and redistribute wealth. It is fueled by radical ideology and a distaste for traditional American values. Here's what Dan Kildee had to say:

"The obsession with growth is sadly a very American thing. Across the US, there's an assumption that all development is good, that if communities are growing they are successful..."

Actually Dan, if a city is growing it IS successful. Growth is "sadly...American"? It gets worse...

"The city is buying up houses in more affluent areas to offer to people in neighbourhoods it wants to demolish..., said Mr Kildee.

"Much of the land will be given back to nature. People will enjoy living near a forest or meadow," he said."

So there you have it - a liberal Democrat trifecta. They can seize more power, spread the wealth around and placate the environmental extremists simultaneously. Brilliant! Unless, of course, you happen to like freedom, private property rights and limited government. Why do I suspect Mr. Kildee thinks those principles are sad American obsessions, too?