Why hold it to 3% when we can give all of our government employees 7% or maybe even 10%? The recent events in Lansing allowing a 3% raise for UNION employees to occur on Oct. 1 is just another example of how out of touch Michigan legislatures really are. I know it is ONLY $43 million but it still adds up unless it is taxpayers money, then it doesn't seem to matter. They are acting more like Washington every day.

With unemployment in the high teens, although they will quickly point out that the numbers are dropping, they continue to feed from the public trough. The only reason unemployment appears to be going down is because of people giving up or people like me who are self employed or self-unemployed and are not counted among the unemployed. Michigan has one of the largest Freelance communities in the country and when work disappears, these Freelance people go without. They don't collect unemployment benefits, they don't get to be counted among the statistics, they just try to find alternative employment. They still have to pay their own health care insurance, mortgages, car loans, you name it.

They cut back in expenses. They stop going out to dinner or the movies. They trim their budgets to reflect their loss of revenue. Unlike Lansing legislatures, who in times of loss revenue, take or give a pay increase. Doesn't Lansing know that their revenues are down? Why can't they realize they have to make cuts? What is wrong with these people? Are they so stupid they can't see this coming? Or are they just so arrogant that they think we won't notice? Don't they know the difference? People are hurting but they just continue as if nothing has happened.

This Lansing and Washington elitist attitude disgusts me and come November, we need to remember who is doing what to whom?