A) Spend more than a half-billion dollars of one-time only federal stimulus funds, designed to create jobs and kick-start the economy, to instead erase bureaucratic red ink and

B)  Increase overall spending!!!

Because that won't create a massive new structural budget hole that'll need filling in the future.  Noooooooo.

Here is a history of Michigan's state government budgets during the Granholm-Cherry administration's time at the helm.

2003 Total Budget: $38,546,223,200  

2004 Total Budget: $39,236,530,900

2005 Total Budget: $40,224,217,400

2006 Total Budget: $41,672,547,100

2007 Total Budget: $42,791,804,000  

2008 Total Budget: $43,827,383,200  

2009 Total Budget: $44,200,000,000

Don't need to be a rocket scientist (apologies to Congressman Ehlers) to notice that those numbers have gone up pretty significantly.  

Are there cuts in this budget?  You bet.  The Governor wants to fire 1,500 government employees, cuts funding for schools by $59 per kid and slashes higher ed funding by $100 million.  

And STILL the overall budget increases by nearly $400,000,000... in the face of a $1.6 billion short fall!

With a half-billion in one-time stimulus spending used to erase red ink.

Talk about a whole new definition of "spending cuts."  More like "shuffling deck chairs on the Titanic."