Charlie Sykes asks what Doyle and the Democratic Legislature are thinking with the Daughter-of-Necrobudget (© Kevin Binversie) that came out of the Joint Finance Committee on mostly party-line 12-4 votes:
Here’s the most interesting political question of the year: why do Jim Doyle and the Democrats think they can get away with this budget?
The package rolling toward final approval is a grotesque fiscal, economic and political monster that not even a mother could love. Besides a few notable payoffs to favored special interests like the trial lawyers and the teachers union, it is a collection of uglies: massive tax and fee increases during a recession; slashes in law enforcement while releasing hundreds of felons from prison; gutting welfare reform; and tens of millions of dollars of pork, all cooked up behind closed doors and voted on in the middle of the night….
There is, in short, no lip stick glossy enough for this pig. So what could Doyle be thinking here?
Charlie, after listing a few of the horrid things in the Daughter-of-Necrobudget that I didn’t include in the excerpt, has a few possible answers to the question. The simple answer is, because they can.
One of the longer answers that Charlie didn’t have time to mention is the “overload” theory. Even if the Democrats get ousted in 2010 (or sooner; there are recall efforts being organized against both Doyle and Sen. Jim Sullivan of Wauwatosa), they figure that, with so much garbage being tossed up, there’s no way the Republicans will be able to mop everything up and restore the pre-bloated size of government.
“… has a few possible answers to the question. The simple answer is, because they can.” I believe that the correct response is THEY WON. We need to change that.