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For several weeks, Fox News has declared war on the Chevy Volt in the name of belittling all so-called green energy initiatives. The attacks have been relatively trivial, ranging from ridicule by Bill O'Reilly over a recall to general guffaws at the idea of vehicles that don't consume huge amounts of fossil fuel energy. But that all changed today with this segment on Megyn Kelly's show Monday.

Kelly featured James Hohman from the Mackinac Center for Public Policy, the Koch-funded think tank in Michigan. Much of Mackinac's focus is on right-to-work laws and union busting wherever possible, so what better target to focus on than a GM-manufactured green vehicle, right?

According to the Mackinac study, if all government subsidies are added up and divided by the number of vehicles sold, it adds up to $250,000 per vehicle. The included subsidies are everything from research and development credits for battery technology to purchaser credits for buying a green vehicle. Of course, the problem is that this number assumes only 7,000 Chevy Volts will ever be sold anywhere. Forever and ever. As more Volts are sold and as more models become available and are shown to be reliable, more people will buy them. As for traction, I would note that when the Toyota Prius was introduced in this country, it only sold 5,800 units in the first year it was sold in the United States. The Volt sales topped that and as the price comes down, sales will increase.

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Back in June of this year, Governor Rick Snyder and the Republican legislature in Michigan were fiercely debating ways to limit government contributions for public pensions and health care costs. One of the strategies was to switch the public contribution from a fixed percentage of premiums to a fixed dollar amount, and that initiative ultimately passed in September.

For 2012, school districts could not spend more than a fixed amount for health insurance, or else they would have to opt for an 80/20 percent cost-sharing plan where teachers paid 20 percent with the district picking up the 80 percent. This law was passed in advance of contracts being negotiated for the 2012 year, so that they would have to include it as part of the negotiation. In other words, the legislators tied unions' bargaining ability in a knot.

This legislation was just part of a multi-pronged attack on unions and public education in general. Other bills have been passed along party lines changing tenure rules and criteria for firing teachers, allowing outsourcing of teachers in charter schools, changing union dues rules, attacking collective bargaining, lifting limitations on state payments to cyber schools, and even lifting anti-bullying rules.

It's not an accident that this is happening in Michigan. Michigan, after all, is the home of Betsy and Dick DeVos, ardent opponents of all public schools. They aren't afraid to throw millions at that goal, either. One of her very favorite charities, along with her pals the Kochs, is the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. Ostensibly a think tank, Mackinac is a non-profit organization which exists to write, lobby and serve as advocate for right wing dream legislation.

Emails published on Monday by the Michigan Education Association clearly show that Mackinac was coordinating with Republican state legislators in Michigan to not only limit teachers' collective bargaining rights, but they were also deeply involved in the policy surrounding health care costs. In one email from Jack McHugh, Mackinac senior legislative analyst and editor of MichiganVotes.org to state Representative (and chair of the House Education Committee) Tom McMillin with copies to several other Mackinac policy wonks, McHugh says this:

I personal think 20 percent is OK, because it changes the employee incentives (and we do believe in incentives!)

But a hard cap is OK too.

Do we care who runs the operation? Maybe, for this reason: Our goal is outlaw government collective bargaining in Michigan, which in practical terms means no more MEA.

I'm reminded of our calls to eliminate ISDs [Internal Service Departments] (and Ruth's work to expose them): The legislature keeps giving them more things to do, making it ever more difficult to abolish them.

Mackinac's stated purpose and programs on its 990 filing are as follows:

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