In their own words...

(Democrat) State Rep. Peggy Krusick says she is running for re-election based on her “independent track record,” which includes voting against “an unaffordable $65 billion tax-and-spend state budget that raised our taxes, fees, car insurance and utility bills and more.” She said she is focusing on “ensuring that taxpayer dollars are well spent, jobs and quality education.”

- The Milwaukee Sheppard Express

We understand if you don't want to take our word for it when we tell you about all the tax increases Rep. Garthwaite supported over the last two years.

Now you don't have to. Just read what the Democrats themselves are saying about their budget.

Milwaukee's far-left weekly newspaper The Shepard Express printed a story about Democrat Representative Peggy Krusick's primary race earlier this week.

Like Garthwaite, Krusick claims to be a moderate Democrat who votes her district.

Unlike Garthwaite, Krusick actually is a moderate Democrat and surprisingly does vote the way she talks.

Krusick votes consistently pro-life and as you can see above she opposed the last state budget because it so dramatically increased costs on Wisconsin's families. Otherwise she is pretty much a party line Democrat with enough honesty to call the budget what it was - "an unaffordable $65 billion tax-and-spend state budget that raised our taxes, fees, car insurance and utility bills and more."

Krusick's purposeful honesty stands in contrast with a bout of unintentional honesty that came from Democrat State Senator Jim Holperin earlier this year when he said, "We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes in the recently adopted state budget...You know the Governor's got enough little tax and fee hikes in that budget of his to sink a good sized battleship."

It took an open records request to get that out of Holperin. It's nice to see at least one Democrat, Krusick, openly calling out the Democrats and their budget.

"We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes"

In a political blunder for the ages Democrat State Senator Jim Holperin had a bout of honesty during a couple of email exchanges. Quite unfortunately for tax and spend Democrats like Phil Garthwaite, these emails just fell into the hands of the state media.

According to this Lakeland Times article, a constituent wrote the Democrat in support of increasing the beer tax, something Rep. Garthwaite has long supported. The Democrat Senator responded with the following:

"We Democrats authorized all kinds of new taxes in the recently adopted state budget (cigarette taxes, capital gains taxes, solid waste fees, cell phone tax, boat registration fee, etc. etc.) and took a lot of heat for that," Holperin wrote. "Nobody is eager to be voting for 'another' tax increase ... especially on beer! We're a brewery state, for crumb sakes (which maybe also explains our alcohol culture...)!"

Maybe a liquor tax instead, he contemplated in a message extending over two emails (he had accidentally sent the first in mid-sentence and launched the second email to complete the thought).

"However, the Senate may be in the mood to consider an increase in the liquor ... increase in the liquor tax but even that will be tough sell. I think the choices right now are, ignore the costs, pass the bill and worry about the inconsistency of that later. Or, pass the bill and increase the liquor tax by 50 cents."

In another email, Sen. Holperin described the Democrats' tax and fee increases in a more colorful way, "You know the Governor's got enough little tax and fee hikes in that budget of his to sink a good sized battleship."

Look for these words to becoming to a Republican campaign piece near you soon.

To read others' thoughts on this issue, see this release from Senate Minority Leader Scott Fitzgerald, or this statement from the Republican Party of Wisconsin.