Well, the Senate got hold of the budget and just stripped it of everything with the promise that their plan is to cut even more stuff unless "we the people" agree to some massive tax hikes, rate hikes, fee hikes, toll hikes, and on and on and on. What they are saying is there is no money for anything unless we agree to pay them a lot more. This is now the hardest part of this fight now, they don't seem concerned with reason or common sense, they now have boiled it down to a single goal:

Tell the people they get nothing and even more stripped away unless they support giving the government a lot more money...simple as that.

Where the House was willing to listen and use some common sense, the Senate seems to feel it is all about playing hardball and telling folks they just are not giving enough to their government...I think it is all about raising the fear factor until we agree what we have to do is give them the money. They say the state is billions in the hole with no way out other than massive tax hikes. In an odd way I think they want to cut stuff that is a sucess so that they can claim that things are worse and they want to leave funding in failed areas to allow things to get worse so they can demand even more from us. It is a way to try to force us into further having to rely on them to fix things. So bad is good, waste is right, money well spent that makes a difference is wrong...cut the good programs, schools, things that work or at least make us fear that they will and we will comply.

In a way I think you are seeing the same thing there, they move things around to make people feel uneasy and then this way we just feel happy if we have any kind of job.