The Senate decided today that it would be inappropriate to balance the budget on the backs of the poor, elderly and disabled while maintaining massive tax cuts for the extremely wealthy. The AP's Alan Fram has the story:

The Senate voted Thursday to strip all proposed Medicaid cuts from the $2.6 trillion budget for next year, killing the heart of the plan's deficit reduction and dealing an embarrassing setback to President Bush and Republican leaders.

The amendment, whose chief sponsor was moderate Sen. Gordon Smith, R-Ore., was approved 52-48 after days of heavy lobbying by both sides. It was widely seen as a test of the GOP-run Congress' taste for making even moderate reductions in popular benefit programs that consume two-thirds of the budget and are growing rapidly, even at a time of record federal deficits.

[...]

Joining Smith were all 44 Democrats, independent James Jefforts of Vermont and GOP Sens. Lincoln Chafee of Rhode Island, Norm Coleman of Minnesota, Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe of Maine, Mike DeWine of Ohio, and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

While this measure is certainly needed and kudos must be given to Smith for garnering the necessary votes, it is likely that this amendment will serve as a poison pill for the budget bill when it goes to reconcilliation. Because it is highly unlikely that the more conservative House will agree to this measure and it is even less likely that the two Houses will be able to agree on the size of the extensions to the tax cuts, the Budget just might not happen this year.