Senate Republicans are wrestling with that age-old dilemma, eyes bigger than their–oops, we mean our–wallets. Faced with budget deficits and the growing cost of everything, they’ve vowed to cut spending. But they’re having trouble. They tried and failed to cut back on subsidies to rich farmers. Sen. Tom Coburn’s (R-Okla.) effort to slash funding for other people’s pet projects–like Alaska’s infamous $223 million bridge-to-nowhere–went nowhere.
But here comes Senate Budget Committee Chairman Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) with a solution. He bought $20 worth of Powerball tickets the other day and matched five of the six numbers, winning nearly $1 million. One more number and he would have hit the jackpot–$340 million. So what if the other 99 senators buy Powerball tickets? The odds of a mega Senate payday may be low, but at the moment they seem higher than the odds that senators will actually cut spending.
