Down the Rabbit Hole with State Rep. Fitzgerald: "you can't cut or tax your way out" of budget deficit. What's Left, Magic?

It's time to hold Republicans feet to the fire. They talk there usual game, tax cuts, but are never forced into telling the American public just what they'll cut.

Case in point: Newly installed Wisconsin Assembly Minority Leader Jeff Fitzgerald contradicts his own comments, all in the same statement, about the possibility of raising sales or income taxes and making cuts in our state budget. In fact if you take Fitzgerald at his word-"you can't cut your way out or tax your way out," than there really is NO SOLUTION, since these are the only two option legislators have. Ooops. No wonder they're a minority party.




Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald: "It's a non-starter for us (sales tax increase)... when you're dealing with a $5 billion deficit I think, you really can't cut your way or tax your way out of that. You really need to grow the economy... to try and grow your way out of the deficit."

Typical Republican "top down/trickle down" rhetoric, ignoring the fact that if we're in an economic slump, businesses won't be expanding and hiring more people to make products and goods no one can afford to buy. More importantly, Fitzgerald clearly states, "you can't cut your way out or tax your way out" of the budget deficit, yet proposes just the opposite.

Rep. Jeff Fitzgerald: "The first thing you have to do is to stop the spending... that's what we have a problem with."

Oh, you mean "cut" our way out of the problem, which you just said would not be enough? For a party that wants to do away with the income tax and replace it with a sales tax, Republicans seem to have a problem raising that sales tax a .5 to 1 percentage point higher for some reason.

Bottom line: If you can't raise the sales tax to increase the state budgetary coffers, and you slash Medicaid and educational funding while removing more business taxes from the rolls, just where does that leave us? Alabama?

The press and the Democratic majority have got to stop leaving their comments alone and literally badger them into exposing what they want to eliminate. And don't stop there, ask them to convince the public that their cuts will benefits our quality of life.