In it's zeal to shake down those of us still producing here in Michigan, it turns out that the state collected about $285-million more than it needed for the last fiscal budget which ended September 30th.

Oh, what to do? What to do?

The republicans want to use the money to cover paying back DB costs that should never have been agreed to in the first place or UI costs that sorely lack any oversight altogether.

Before I have anybody chime in that this was out of their hands that that I should be making suggestions instead of slamming republicans for ignoring their principles (yet again), how about this: Removing all welfare payments from the state budget should go a long way towards paying down/eliminating those costs. No constitutional authority, no spending. You can also look into getting people on UI to do SOMETHING as a condition of getting their 99-weeks of checks. Maybe at least 20-hours a week working in local parks, roads, libraries, or even {gasp} schools assisting in cleaning them up or with their daily operations. That federal UI money won't last forever, so the sooner you put these people to work to qualify for their UI check, the better.

Yeah, yeah, I know. There I go thinking logically again.

Moving on, the democrats didn't waste any time coming up with ideas in how they want to spend it. They want the money to go to education.

"It's a no-brainer to me, that's where we need to put the money," said Sen. Steve Bieda, a Democrat from Warren.

Sorry, Senator.

There's a motto from a group HQ'd in this corner of the state that I strongly agree with. It goes something like this:

"Because every dollar that the government takes, that it doesn't absolutely need, is theft."

The final numbers won't be ready finalized for a few weeks. But I can think of one thing that Michigan Republicans can do to make amends for their past abandonment of their principles: Give the money back to the people they took it from originally.

Pick a tax hike, any tax hike, and repeal it; be it income, pension tax, whatever.