My personal favorite excuse so far this year comes with the administration claiming they already submitted a plan to fix the budget in February.  Everyone in Lansing knows that excuse is a complete joke.  Since the governor submitted her proposal in February, the problem has gotten worse as the deficit has grown by another $1 billion.  So the logic from Granholm is equal to that of an auto mechanic who repaired your car back in February and then, when something else goes wrong six months later, he tells you he won't look at the problem because he already dealt with it in the winter.  Talk about quality service.

Fortunately with auto mechanics, we have a choice.  We can just call another mechanic who has their wits about them and fix the car.  But it doesn't work this way with governors.  Whether Granholm decides to do her job or not, we still have to fork over the taxes to pay her, and we (unfortunately) can't just shop around for another governor to take care of the state's business.

The incompetence demonstrated by Granholm would be ripe for a "Saturday Night Live" skit, if the situation weren't so serious.  Flashback to 2007, when the governor pushing for massive tax increases and trying to convince the public that if she got them, the state would finally be back on "solid financial footing".

Well here we are, just two years later.  The state has not only lost it's financial footing on the budgetary balancing beam, but it could well be plummeting to its death as a direct result of the tax increases Granholm promised would save us all as they have forced small businesses to close and have chased would-be entrepreneurs out of the state.  Even Granholm seemed to realize this.  When the smoke was still clearing in the aftermath of the 2007 budget debate, Granholm told the associated press:

"The most important thing I learned (this year) is I'm not ever going to raise taxes again.  It's too hard, it's too impossible"

But now in 2009, the government shutdown game-clock is ticking and we're facing another massive budget deficit that the 2007 tax hikes were supposed to avoid.  Granholm is going back to the page labeled "impossible" in her playbook, determining again, that it is time to raise taxes.

The governor has proposed "closing tax loopholes" for businesses (don't start with me on this my liberal friends.  If you're paying taxes next year that you're not paying now, then that is a tax increase).

The governor has proposed a tax on bottled water.

The governor has proposed an "entertainment tax" on items such as tickets to movies and sporting events.

The governor has proposed jacking up the cigarette tax, yet again, by another 25-percent.

So to paraphrase Harry Doyle (Bob Uecker) in Major League II; "obviously Granholm's thinking...I don't know what the Hell she's thinking".

It seems the "most important" thing she learned back in 2007 wasn't really all that important, because here she is trying to use the same broken tools, to fix the same broken house, and she doesn't even have the blue-prints as to what she wants it to look like when she's finished!

One form of insanity is to do the same thing over and over again and expect a different result.

Am I calling the governor insane? I guess I'll let you be the judge.

Robert Wolfer is Republican staffer who has worked in and around state politics in Lansing for nearly ten years. He can be reached at RWolfer2010@gmail.com