Balance of Power

Dick Cheney got a chance to do the only thing the Constitution needs him do, besides ask how the President is feeling today:

The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.

The measure, the product of a year's labors by the White House and the GOP in Congress, imposes the first restraints in nearly a decade in federal benefit programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and student loans.

That's right, the Vice-President gets to break ties in the Senate. Your fun fact for the day. This happens every few years. Gives Cheney a break from manipulating things fron behind the scenes. Of course, I'm pretty sure that this act of VP power is going to screw me on a personal level. We will have to see if "restraints" in the student loan program are going to lead to "restraints" in Craig's beer buget.