Truth Squad tackles 'State of State' speech

In Michigan in 2012, there's really only one issue on the radar: jobs. How does the state get more of them? How do residents fill them? How much do they pay?

In the hours leading up to Gov. Rick Snyder's second State of the State Address, some notable numbers came in: Michigan's unemployment rate in December 2011 was 9.3 percent, nearly 2 percentage points below where it was in January 2011 -- the time of Snyder's first SOS.

Snyder mentioned the jobs figures in his speech Wednesday night several times. How did Snyder's comments fit with the numbers and what the experts say are the drivers behind them?

Click here to see a Michigan Truth Squad special analysis of Snyder's treatment of the jobs issue Wednesday night.



Pay with VISA Pay with MasterCard Pay with American Express Donate now

Comment Form

Add new comment

Plain text

  • No HTML tags allowed.
  • Lines and paragraphs break automatically.


Thu, 01/19/2012 - 9:50am
Snyder's answer to everything is China. He traveled to China last year and called for more direct investment in Michigan by China (read that as China should buy more American companies). Snyder's company, Neophotonics was a California company until he merged it with a Chinese company four times its size and owned partly by the Chinese government. Another of his companies, Discera, was built on an inventions by a UM professor and Snyder has exported it to China (probably without an export license). That technology has important military applications in missile guidance systems. Can I sell you a bridge? That is his latest pitch to China. The company building the freeway to the new international bridge on the Canadian side is Hutchinson Wampoa, a Chinese construction company and when Snyder was asked if he would mind if China built and operated the bridge, he said that would be fine with him. With so much of his wealth invested in China, when he returns to China later this year, will Snyder represent Michigan's interests or will he represent China's. Read more at