IN MY OPINION: Grothman and friends  bragged they were fiscal hawks. Turns out they’re really spendthrift doves. 

If any of the seven Wisconsin Republican congressmen try to tell you that they are fiscal conservatives, tell them you no longer buy their story.

They may have truly held to fiscally conservative principles once upon a time, but their votes for Trump’s big ugly bill that they passed and he signed into law tells exactly the opposite story. Here is what they voted for:

A $3-$4 trillion increase in the federal debt over 10 years. It’s now $36 trillion, and the interest on the debt is crowding out other national priorities.

A $150 billion addition to our defense budget, bringing the total to almost a trillion dollars. That’s 3% of GDP. It should be 5% to meet the emergent belligerence from Russia, China and pockets of terrorism. Trump is asking NATO countries for that level of spending. Tragically, and myopically, there is no earmark for the defense of Ukraine, which is wreaking major hurt on Russia, the world’s and our most dangerous enemy. We were spending only 5% of the defense budget, about $40 billion per year, to arm the stubborn Ukrainians until Trump started favoring Putin. Once hawks, our GOP delegation is now all doves.

Over-the-top spending of several hundred billion on our paranoid war against immigrants of all legal stripes at a time of severe labor shortages. That includes $45 billion on ICE, more by far than on the FBI. It’s Trump’s emerging police force. Scary.

No adult attention to the looming insolvency of Social Security, a lifeline for almost 70 million Americans.

No steps to deal with soaring health costs that are hammering families and businesses. The law’s cuts to Medicaid and Obamacare will eliminate health care for many families. The Republican GOP President Theodore Roosevelt would trust bust the current medical industrial complex. A regulated fixed price list for treatments is in order but gets no mention in the Trump concoction.

Disproportionate tax breaks for the richest Americans. I have not heard wealthy Americans asking for breaks for millionaires and billionaires. Most want tax fairness that stimulates the economy. No one believes in trickle-down economics anymore. High tax states mostly do better than low tax states.

I remember when Glenn Grothman first ran for the Legislature and later for Congress. He was a real fiscal conservative. He even took on Republican Gov. Tommy Thompson when he thought state spending was too high.

But like the other Wisconsin Republican congressmen, he was a very quiet, subservient yes vote for Trump’s deficit and debt busting legislation. They caved. The GOP can’t spin it in any other way.