Calumet Township 2025-02-28

Calumet Township
Sarah Green, Calumet Township Resident
2025-02-28

Thank you for your attention and for your efforts to improve lives of Calumet residents. I have even seen Tim putting boots on the ground to cut trees blocking trails at Waterworks Park. Calumet Township is a great place to live.

I’m here today to address a threat to our democratic institutions. As Americans, whatever our political leanings, we have an intense loathing of tyranny. Although we may have honest disagreements about what that means, I am certain that nobody here voted for Elon Musk.

I have come to you for two reasons. First, because actions at the federal level have direct consequences for the Copper Country residents whom you represent; and second, because you are our local face of democracy, and you have taken an oath to uphold the constitution.

The checks and balances embedded in the constitution are under attack.

1. The president is claiming the power to overturn the wishes of congress by freezing funds that have already been approved. The funding freeze aimed to block thousands of programs across the country from Meal-on-Wheels to Cancer Research. Billions of dollars in federal funding flows to counties and townships, often through state programs, including Community block grants, infrastructure programs, school lunch programs, and health insurance.
In 2023 Calumet Township received $1,574,678 in federal grants, mainly for housing and community development.

These are your taxes, and mine, that congress is sending back to support citizens and programs for their benefit. The president does not have the right to block these appropriated funds.

A judge has agreed, and has since ordered that the freeze be lifted while this action is challenged in the courts.

2. A private citizen and his unvetted associates have gained access to the Social Security system, the IRS, and Treasury, exposing your social security data, tax information, and personal data. This is the “most consequential security breach in US history.”

There is no provision under any of the three branches for a private businessman to have access to the nation’s checkbook. And Elon Musk not only has billions of dollars in contracts with the government through his various companies, but also has undisclosed relationships with Russia, China, and other U.S. adversaries.

Again, judges are moving to block this access. However, it’s impossible to recover data once it’s been exposed.

3. Elon Musk is further threatening the more than 9000 federal workers employed in MI-01 (1st congressional district).  An unknown number of local people have already been illegally fired. Federal employees make up 2.6% of the workforce in our area. About 40% of them work for the VA; about 30% are veterans themselves. These are your friends and neighbors who are being fired. And they work for us, the American people, not for Elon Musk.


These actions have profound local implications, as explained by previous speakers today. Your constituents will suffer severely if federal funding and employment actions are allowed to proceed. I have many questions about why my federal taxes that were intended to fund local programs are being snatched by businessmen in Washington.

Even more critically, undermining the checks and balances of our system reverberate to all levels of government.

If justice is decided based on political patronage and friends in high places, laws become irrelevant.

If the highest government officials ignore the rule of law, how can you govern locally? If private-sector billionaires can decide how and where government money is spent, congress becomes irrelevant, and so do you.

My right to “to petition the Government for a redress of grievances” has no meaning if government is beholden to private interests.

Do you have a plan to support your constituents if this federal government take-over succeeds?

Can we count on you to tell officials in Lansing and Washington how important federal services are to Calumet Township?

I urge you put political differences aside and work together to address this constitutional threat.