Democrat House leader sounds off on GOP speaker Matt Hall

State Democrat House leader

The House Democrats accused the speaker of following an alleged broken down agenda coming from President Donald Trump.

LANSING (FOX 2) - House Democrats have broken their collective silence and are taking on GOP Speaker Matt Hall for the way he is running the Michigan House.

Hall has staged weekly news conference dating back to January 14. Have the House Democrats held weekly news conferences to respond?

Big picture view:

Nope, until now. House Democratic leader Ranjeev Puri took on the speaker with a list of allegations.

"When unserious people are put in the position of power they have, there are very dangerous consequences," Puri said.

"I don't understand why Matt Hall has not been standing up for the people of Michigan."

The House Democrats accused the speaker of following an alleged broken down agenda coming from President Donald Trump.

The Democrats argued the GOP speaker ought to be rejecting Trump's tariffs with a bad impact on Michigan.

"Tell Donald Trump, 'Hey, maybe a trade war isn't good for our state," Puri said.

The Democrats also argue the speaker is wrong for missing the july one budget deadline that could force schools to lay off teachers during the summer.

"Teachers are pink slipped, hundreds of teachers in individual districts will be put on leave this summer," he said.

Of course the speaker deflects the criticism saying he is taking more time to find more waste in the budget in order to save taxpayers' money.

And Hall has criticized Lansing Democrat Senator Sarah Anthony for writing a budget that is a billion dollars out of whack.

One could say that budget peace is not at hand - but the rhetoric is going up.

The Source: Information for this report is from an interview with House Democratic leader Ranjeev Puri.