Government investment is good! No , it’s BAD! Wait…

Republican state Senator Mike Kowall took to the stage this past week as part of Romney’s Obama Misrepresentation & Distortion Tour, touting his family business. Though Romney’s OMD Tour barely made a splash in the media, they did get one article in the Oakland Press where Kowall is quoted as saying “We’re the ones who helped pay to put in the sewers, we helped pay to put in water extensions, and promoted a lot of growth in the area. It wasn’t something that was done by government, it wasn’t something that government came by and said they were going to do for us.”

It’s an interesting comment in light of Kowall’s past statement about government investments in infrastructure.

Last November, Kowall put out a press release where he said this:

To help foster a pro-jobs environment, we are going to take a look at reforming Michigan’s personal property tax, which discourages business investment in equipment and technology. Additionally, we plan to streamline permitting and regulation, and rebuild our roads and bridges. We must invest in our state if we expect job providers to follow suit.

It’s a clear acknowledgement that government does have a role to play in helping businesses thrive in our state and across the country. It’s also just another glaring example of the hypocrisy of Republicans on this issue.

By the way, shame on the Oakland Press for this statement in their article:

The events are the Romney campaign’s response to remarks made by the president that “if you’ve got a business — you didn’t build that. Somebody else made that happen.”

If the Oakland Press had a shred of journalistic credibility, they would have included the whole statement made by President Obama:

If you were successful, somebody along the line gave you some help. There was a great teacher somewhere in your life. Somebody helped to create this unbelievable American system that we have that allowed you to thrive. Somebody invested in roads and bridges. If you’ve got a business, you didn’t build that.

The “that” in the bit they printed refers to all of the bolded stuff, of course, not “a business”.

Our media is failing our country and this is just one more clear example of it.

Sigh…