In a single day, the state senate’s new Democratic majority succeeded where their Republican predecessors had failed for two years.

By voting for a budget with an $18 billion tax increase and universal health care, Democrats drew a clean bright line between the two parties, defining their ideological differences far more starkly than their GOP counterparts ever dared.

The Democrats' budget won no points for subtlety; it spent lavishly, taxed enthusiastically, and in the words of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel mandated “a broader role for state government in the lives of every Wisconsin resident.”

Contrast that bang with the departed GOP’s parting whimper.

The now defunct GOP senate majority had quailed at the prospect of actually limiting taxes and spending, defeating last year’s attempt to enact a Taxpayer Protection Amendment. Along the way, state Republicans, like their congressional counterparts, squandered their reputation for fiscal conservatism and lost whatever credibility they had left on the issue of tax cuts.

This week was payback, as senate Democrats let loose years of pent-up frustration and indulged their progressive “id.”

In case your psychology is rusty, the id “is responsible for our basic drives such as food, sex and aggressive impulses, and demands immediate satisfaction. It is amoral and egocentric, ruled by the pleasure-pain principle; it is without a sense of time; completely illogical; primarily sexual; infantile in its emotional development; will not take 'no' for an answer; is without verbal representation and therefore does not enter consciousness. It is regarded as the reservoir of the libido or ‘love energy.’”

On vote after vote and in speech after speech, senate liberals, let an awful lot of “love energy” flow.

Freed to indulge their inner progressivism, the Democrats did not even make a pretense of fiscal restraint. According to the Legislative Fiscal Bureau, their budget increases state spending by 23%. Even if the $15 billion health care plan is taken out, state spending would go up 9%.

On every issue their approach was the same:

Gas prices are high: so senate Democrats raised gas taxes even higher ($277 million). Drivers are feeling a pinch: Democrats raised registration fees on cars ($168 million) and trucks ($26.7 million).

Health care costs are squeezing consumers: senate liberals imposed a 1% hospital tax ($418 million) and turned over all the rest of the bills to government, which has done such a great job controlling costs ($15.2 billion).

The housing market is slumping: Democrats doubled the real estate transfer fee ($142 million.)  

Job growth is lagging and wages have fallen below the national average: the newly-empowered progressives slapped a 10% tax hike on corporations ($90 million) and a $15 billion tax on payrolls and wage earners.

Smokers refuse to listen to the health nannies, so the senate stuck them with a tax hike as well ($450 million.)

For every problem, senate Democrats had same solution: let the government do it; trust government to spend money rather than consumers. Grow the bureaucracy; demonize business; shrink the private sector.

Of course even in heir exuberance, the senate Dems managed to keep some of their priorities in mind, guaranteeing the teachers union would be protected from any coverage changes the rest of us might experience from their universal health coverage plan.

Pundits were also quick to point out that the senate budget was merely a rough draft since the spending and taxing excesses wouldn’t make it through the Assembly, which is still narrowly controlled by Republicans.

But the Democratic majority was clearly laying down markers. Commented one legislative observer: “The glee and pride with which they were pushing their tax hikes and government expansion last night was the most startling thing about the whole budget debate.

“They really, really believe this stuff.  Which is terrifying.”

Also revealing. While Republican moderates were spotlighted for killing the TPA, this week’s votes suggest that there are no Democratic moderates in the senate. Not one Democrat voted against the tax increases or the government takeover of health care.

That hard-line may give conservatives something that eluded them in recent years: clarity.

Responding to the senate’s taxathon, Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch said:

“When people find out that their budget plan raises taxes by over $18 billion dollars, increases state spending by 23%, creates a socialist-style health care system and gives government more control over their lives, the reaction will be severe.

“Assembly Republicans are committed to passing a no tax increase budget that lives within the means of the taxpayers, invests in education and protects our most vulnerable citizens. The people of Wisconsin will see a clear difference between our budget plans. Democrats in the state Senate left little room for doubt -- Republicans are the last line of defense for the taxpayer.”

Fighting words.

If only we’d had that kind of passion a year ago.