[img_assist|nid=53059|title=Rob in the hood|desc=|link=none|align=left|width=199|height=117]Is anyone surprised? From the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, whose reporter zeroes right in on the latest Republican fiscal sleight of hand in Madison:

Republican lawmakers voted Tuesday to trim taxes for corporations and investors while further cutting tax credit programs for the working poor... .

"What we're trying to do is grow jobs, so it's very much in keeping with our agenda," said Sen. Alberta Darling (R-River Hills), co-chairwoman of the committee.

The cuts to the earned income credit would total $56.2 million over two years, $12.7 million more than the cuts proposed by Walker, according to the Legislature's nonpartisan budget office. The Legislative Fiscal Bureau has described Walker's proposal as a state income tax increase ... .

Note that the unctuous Darling hails from River Hills, one of the wealthiest and most exclusive little suburbs in Wisconsin, if not America. Maybe she could be excused for not having a clue about the working poor, but let's go ahead and not excuse her, especially since she is up for recall in just a few weeks.

If all the above weren't enough, the GOP-dominated Ledge is also busy cutting the capital gains tax. That's the tax on dividends on investments, held in large quantities by people like Darilng, and in virtually zero quantities by working-class people. This after cutting corporate taxes. All of which Darling and her cohorts insist will miraculously balance future budgets by "creating jobs." Righhhhht. Just the way the massive Bush tax cuts created jobs.

Whoops, excuse me. Bush was the president with the worst job-creation record in modern US history along with the biggest deficits in history -- caused, mostly, by those very tax cuts. Which in turn continue to bedevil the economy, which in turn elict still more Republican calls for further tax cuts and for balancing the budget on the backs of average folks who have shouldered most of the burden and rightly expect something in return besides "kick me" signs on their backs.

A definition of insanity is doing the same thing repeatedly (in this case, cutting taxes and expecting revenues to actually improve, as per 1980s-style "supply side" economics) while continuing to expect a different result.

Moreover, "balancing" the budget by cutting aid to the working poor and middle class, then turning around and giving it away to rich people and corporations instead, has got to be the height of cynicism and peak of crony capitalism.

Did I call the state's bicameral legislative body the Ledge? Pardon me. Soon they'll be done wielding their ledge hammer and they'll have take Wisconsin over the ledge along with (and this is GOP-style small compensation) their own political careers.

http://www.jsonline.com/news/statepolitics/122902194.html