Well, just as the state’s budget crisis was entirely predictable, so is the response to it. Republicans are, correctly, opposing any tax increases.

The question isn’t whether they’ll initially say the right things here — they almost always at least manage that much — but whether they’ll follow through and do the right things. Hopefully, after years of Democrats ignoring them when it comes to the budget, they’ve learned something and won’t give them bipartisan cover this time.

If they manage to do that, and to stick together, things may get very difficult for Gov. Janet Mills. That’s because while Democrats are all too happy — as always — to raise any taxes they can get away with, nobody seems very interested in cutting any spending.

Cities and nonprofits opposed Mills’ proposal in the supplemental budget to limit general assistance, and the Health and Human Services Committee unanimously rejected Mills’ attempt to curtail the cost of living adjustment for health care workers. That doesn’t necessarily mean that particular cut is automatically dead — these things have a bad habit of being revived at the last moment under the cover of darkness — but it shows what legislators think of it at the moment.

It will be interesting to see how negotiations proceed over both the supplemental and the biennial budget, but thus far, it seems as if the only bipartisanship inspired by Mills’ budget is a rejection of it, and that’s just fine.

After years of runaway spending, it appears that many legislators, lobbyists and local elected officials are unable to accept the new reality. Typically, I’d point out here that Republicans are hypocritical to oppose both spending cuts and tax increases. The money has to come from somewhere. In this case, however, they’re right to oppose the cuts in Mills’ budget proposal because they’re both half-hearted and misguided.

Far from being an austerity budget, this budget attempts to maintain the status quo just as much as possible. It’s understandable that Mills wants to take that route instead of implementing the wholesale structural fiscal reforms that Maine sorely needs. Indeed, it’s a pattern of behavior for her: constantly implementing half-measures in an attempt to moderately constrain crises, rather than taking bold leaps to actually solve the problem. Republicans need to stop going along with that approach and let Mills find the votes on her own.

Meanwhile, it’s becoming clear that a vast segment of Mills’ own Democratic Party is completely opposed to any kind of spending cuts whatsoever. They’d rather just raise taxes and keep paying for everything, they just won’t admit it.

Republicans should do everything they can during the budget negotiations to enable those people this time, rather than helping the Mills administration dispense with them. That means standing with them to oppose Mills’ proposed cuts in spending, shifting the focus to a fight among Democrats — a win-win both politically and in terms of policy for Republicans.

As an example, take the proposed cuts in reimbursement rates to hospitals. Maine’s hospitals are already in trouble, with many shutting down whole services, cutting back services or being sold to out-of-state corporations to stay in operation. Rather than trying to find a solution to these and the many other problems faced by Maine’s health care system, Mills is attempting to balance her budget by cutting reimbursement rates, making everything worse.

Republicans have come out clearly in opposition to these cuts, and in this case, they’re not being hypocritical: they’re being wise. Just as Democrats would be foolish to oppose all spending cuts, while Republicans would be foolish to embrace all of them.

It must be noted here the difference between spending cuts and tax increases. Opposing all tax increases makes sense as long as there’s still wasteful spending to be cut. Opposing or supporting all spending cuts does not make sense because, well, not all spending is wasteful.

We can spend more in certain areas, and cut way back in others, all without raising a dime in taxes. That’s what real fiscal responsibility looks like, but Mills’ budget doesn’t do that. Instead, she’s trying to save her favorite programs by cutting programs she doesn’t like and raising taxes on people she doesn’t like. That’s not atypical for politicians, of course, but Republicans needn’t enable it — and, in the early going, it looks like some Democrats might not be interested in enabling it, either.