Word: engler
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...Engler's beast-to-beauty story began in 1990, when he defeated Democratic incumbent James Blanchard by a margin of less than 1%. Engler was not particularly popular, but he promised to dig a strapped Michigan out of a $1.8 billion deficit without raising taxes. He lost no time starting. Half a year after his election, he shocked observers by eliminating Michigan's general-assistance program for the state's 83,000 childless, able-bodied poor. Then he moved on to civil servants, cutting 20 boards and commissions and 5,000 state jobs...
Many Michiganders thought he would soon be unemployed himself. In the fall after his welfare move, two homeless men whose payments had been cut lit a fire for warmth in an abandoned house and asphyxiated. An "Englerville" shantytown sprouted in front of the state capital. Engler was widely described as mean; his own pollster put his approval rating...
...toughed it out and was rewarded. From 1993 to 1995, Engler's budget slashing--along with a providentially strong recovery by Michigan's auto industry--enabled him to cut taxes 21 ways and increase them only once. In place of the huge deficit, there was a $300 million surplus. Engler forged on with an intensive welfare-to-work program that he claims has found jobs for 30% of the recipients. Critics have called that number incomplete and misleading. But Engler's boast of having saved $100 million on welfare reform became his national calling card. As the state's economy...
...least that is how it appeared to awe-struck House Republicans, who desperately craved Scrooge-makes-good stories as they pushed their budget-balancing legislation last year. Engler began commuting to Washington as a combination welfare guru and motivational speaker. Republican commentator Mary Matalin remembers what the House freshmen took away from one pep talk: "You gotta lead. They're going to demagogue you, your numbers are going to go down, but you have to hang...
Gingrich was particularly fascinated by Engler's strategic savvy. Kristol recalls that after the government shutdown failed to push the President into a budget deal and forced Gingrich to abandon the strategy, on Jan. 6 the exhausted Speaker sought out Engler, who was in town. "It was striking that after this momentous day in his leadership, he wanted to bounce ideas off John more than anyone else," says Kristol. The three rendezvoused in a Hyatt hotel coffee shop. "John had the insight that you couldn't force Clinton to do things," says Kristol, but that the Congress could send...