'The Sensenbrenner Tax' and Real ID

Last year, Wisconsin legislators raised the driver's license fee by $10 to pay for state compliance with Real ID, the national ID law authored by Congressman F. James Sensenbrenner. The fee, which raised Wisconsin taxes by $22 million, will now be used to balance the Wisconsin state budget.

Now Congressman Sensenbrenner is mad. He calls the deal, negotiated by Assembly Speaker Mike Huebsch (R-West Salem) and Senate Majority Leader Russ Decker (D-Weston), a "breach of faith with the people of Wisconsin" and a "fiscal shell game."

This turn of events leaves many Wisconsin conservatives scratching their heads in wonder: Congressman Sensenbrenner purports to be a foe of big government. So why is he complaining that Wisconsin legislators aren't spending his tax increase the way he wants them to?

That's the question asked by Sensenbrenner's opponent in the Republican primary, on the Small Business Times blog, which -- besides calling the new fee the Sensenbrenner Tax -- includes a lot of reasons for both the left and right to oppose Sensenbrenner's Real ID law. Read it here.