Apparently Michigan's Governor Rick Snyder is doing his best not only to trash his state's economy, but also to inflict as much pain as humanly possible on the poor and unemployed there while he's at it.

Michigan whacks unemployment benefits, other states seek same 'devil take the hindmost' approach:

With the official jobless rate still hovering around 9 percent and the real damage a good deal higher than that, states have been spending a lot of money—borrowed federal money to the tune of $45.9 billion—on unemployment compensation benefits. Having implied or stated outright that these government payments make laid-off workers lazy, several Republican governors and Republican-led legislatures want to avoid or at least reduce their obligations to pay such benefits. Michigan leads the pack. Governor Rick Snyder signed into law Monday a cut in future benefits from the nationwide standard of 26 weeks to 20 weeks beginning in January 2012. [...] Representative Sander M. Levin (MI-12) called the law a reckless move that could harm hundreds of thousands of workers. “It turns the clock back 50 years at a time when unemployment is at historic highs since the Depression," he said. "I think that Michigan should not be to unemployment insurance what Wisconsin has become to collective bargaining.” Snyder claims he wants to focus on jobs instead of joblessness. A clever bit of propaganda that will no doubt have a lot of tax-cutting involved. In fact, besides putting the screws to those alleged bon bon-eating, cable-watching layabouts, the key impetus behind the new law is that it would reduce in the future how much employers pay into the state's unemployment fund.

And as Rachel Maddow discussed with CEPR's Dean Baker, a conservative think tank, Mackinac Center For Public Policy has also targeted her with some of their over-the-top FOIA requests. Conservative Think Tank Seeks Michigan Profs' Emails About Wisconsin Union Battle ... And Maddow: