Democrats who save the Republicans’ bacon by approving a budget deal that includes anything that can be credibly described as Medicare cuts will be tarred by the electorate.

Today the Congress returned to session for a month in which the Treasury Department is expected to reach the debt limit. They may be able to take extraordinary measures to keep under the limit for a while, but it’s likely that under normal conditions, the limit will be reached this month. Joe Biden will open a discussion between the parties on how to get a vote passed to increase the limit this week.

For years, the default position on the right has been a “tough on crime” approach to prison policy. This ends up leading to mass overcrowding and the highest rates of incarceration in the world. In addition to the consequences for human rights and human dignity, there are serious consequences for state budgets. Over the past few years, some conservatives have slowly backed away from the “lock ‘em up” strategy on criminal justice, and toward a smart on crime approach.

As scary as CPAC was, keep in mind: it was insufficiently wingnutty for a whole swath of the right-wing movement, as Erick Erickson helpfully reminds us.

Small government activist Grover Norquist is calling for Republicans to begin a serious debate on the Afghanistan war. Not surprisingly, Norquist was focusing on the cost of financing our seemingly endless military commitment to the country.

A poll by the Afghanistan Study Group shows majority of conservatives are turning against the war, prompting Grover Norquist to call for an antiwar coalition. But not everyone is happy about this.

So it appears that the House and Senate will hold votes on extending the tax cuts up to the first $250,000 of income, and letting the rest expire. But they don’t appear to be particularly hopeful that such a plan will actually pass.

This is a really vicious proposal. But just because it has a few tax increases doesn’t necessarily mean that Republicans won’t take it and run with it. And there are enough Democrats in the Third Way side of things to be swayed by a “get serious” approach.

Sundance hit Casino Jack and the United States of Money is everything a documentary should be: Fast paced, informative and fun. It opens with Jack Abramoff’s quote that no one watches documentaries, suggesting that an action film be made instead, and rockets on from there, beginning with a murder and taking us through the perfidious history of Jack Abramoff, a master of corruption, shady deals and deregulation and the fallout: Human trafficking, environmental disasters, the hornswoggling of Indian tribes for casino profits, and murder.

Remarkably, the Audit the Fed movement includes all of the 96 Senators who were present Tuesday.