Toon & text by John Auchter
Last week Lt. Gov. Brian Calley made a somewhat unfair accusation against fellow Republican gubernatorial candidate, Bill Schuette. Calley’s team obtained Schuette’s work calendar through a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request and noticed large gaps between appointments. Calley interpreted this as Schuette basically only working 104 full days in his eight years as Michigan’s Attorney General. That’s a big stretch, but consistent with Calley’s ongoing narrative that Schuette works more for himself than the people of Michigan.
The natural question then is: What does Calley’s work history look like? But since that isn’t available by a FOIA request, Calley himself would have to supply it. Which he won’t, at least for now. He says it would involve too much information about other people’s schedules in government, and he needs to be careful. While technically a plausible reason, I think we can all agree it scores pretty high on the weasel scale.
The chair of the Michigan Democratic Party chimed in to say, “We’re glad Bill Schuette and Brian Calley are finally recognizing that neither of them have been doing their jobs.” As if all of their candidates have pristine work histories. Uh-huh.
Here’s the thing, though. If I were to be falsely accused of not working enough hours to qualify as a full-time worker, it’s difficult to imagine Bill Schuette siding with me over, say, a corporation. Especially on a health care issue. So it’d be kind of satisfying to see Schuette lose his benefits long enough to experience firsthand the joys of being on the outside of the system.
John Auchter draws cartoons. Lots and lots of them. You can find them at his incredibly popular website auchtoon.com. You can also find his stuff on Michigan Public Radio’s website under Opinion.
Would love to see it happen. Give politicians a taste of how scary it is to not have health care coverage. Been there, done that.
The scene in this cartoon is something many Americans have experienced themselves. Unfortunately it is only a fantasy that someone of Schuette’s status will ever get a taste of what it is like in order to learn.
Love!
It is true, though. In my family, we have sudden unemployment, with dicey health care after. They are supposed to cover preventive care, no matter what. But, we have charges now for hundreds of dollars. Health care weasel companies. Obama allowed private health care insurers, as an accommodation to Republicans, but those insurance companies are rapacious pirates, trying to get away with everything, do not care about the law.