To all Oregonians...

In response to the previous post, Gordon Smith indeed appears to be one Republican that might be open to supporting PAYGO rules. Although he didn't support the measure last year, he has already signalled a willingness to defect on the budget this year. Sheryl Gay Stolberg and David D. Kirkpatrick have the story in The New York Times.

At least one Republican, Senator Gordon H. Smith of Oregon, is trying to strike $14 billion in proposed Medicaid cuts from the budget, a plan that drew the ire of Senator Judd Gregg, the New Hampshire Republican and chairman of the budget committee who is a staunch advocate of reducing entitlement spending.

Gordon Smith's seat is not completely safe, and although he won handily in 2002 -- mostly as a result of the late withdrawal of John Kitzhaber, which made it extremely difficult for Bill Bradbury to raise sufficient funds (he was outspent nearly 3 to 1) -- 2008 should not be nearly as easy. If enough Oregonians turn up the heat on him, he just might turn on PAYGO, ensuring its passage, thus hamstringing the GOP on any further attempts to raide the treasury to give tax cuts for the extremely rich.

[Update 9:47 PM Pacific]: The AP's Alan Fram has more on Smith's defection on Medicaid cuts.

GOP Senator Would Block Medicaid Cuts

A moderate Republican is trying to strip all $14 billion in Medicaid cuts from the Senate's $2.56 trillion budget, testing the GOP-run Congress' appetite for trimming spending as President Bush has proposed.

As the Senate began debating the budget Monday, Republicans struggled behind the scenes to head off the amendment by Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore. Should Smith prevail later this week, it would mark an embarrassing rejection of one of the pillars of Bush's budget and raise questions about how much deficit reduction the GOP can achieve, even at a time of record shortfalls.

Although this story is evidence of the fact that Smith is by no means a deficit hawk, it does show his overwhelming willingness to turn on his party on budgeting. Getting himn to switch his vote on PAYGO will not be easy, but it's surely possible.