The Nation | Blog | The Daily Outrage | Benefits Down, Deficit Up | Ari Berman: "The only bright spot of the Senate's passage of President Bush's atrocious 2006 budget came when Democrats and moderate Republicans blocked a proposed $15 billion cut to Medicaid. Following the vote, incredulous GOP Senators, attempting to reclaim the lost mantle of fiscal responsibility, denounced the proposal for supposedly bloating the deficit. But giving the lie to their rhetoric, Republican Senator Jim Bunning then went ahead and passed a tax break on Social Security benefits for the wealthiest Americans that was four times larger than the Medicaid amendment."

(Via The Nation Weblogs.)