it's not monopoly money

several papers go with the story of the house passing a bill to corral some entitlement spending by $40 billion dollars, mostly stressing the politics of it, as the bill goes to the president for his signature

the ny times [bugmenot login] stresses a victory for president bush, but a close vote as some republicans went against

The vote helped President Bush deliver on his promise to rein in federal spending while underscoring deep anxiety within his party over cutting social welfare programs in an election year.
[snip]
Coming on the heels of the State of the Union address, the vote was a critical test of Mr. Bush's ability to hold his fractured party together.

the WaPo [bugmenot login]
goes more into the list of cuts, but then suggest it wasn't worth it

The impact of the bill on the deficit is likely to be negligible, slicing less than one-half of 1 percent from the estimated $14.3 trillion in federal spending over the next five years.

only in washington can $40 billion be considered "negligible"--that's nearly $400 per american household...
xboxes for everyone, if they made enough of them...

¶ - nitish @ 9:21 AM