You are right in that Walker and the state go for the "shock and awe" cuts to what you identified, plus troopers and incarceration.  This is done to bait people in thinking the sky is falling, so they can fall for the "broad-based" tax scam that will only propagate wasteful spending in state government.  But it is not just the R's.   Walker is (in theory) an "I".  If you want to blame someone, blame the state employee unions for having so many politicians (Walker included) on their puppet strings.  And blame state employees that pay union dues that field union corruption.