9:35 AM -- The New York Times' headline writers seem to have found a new, ironic voice. In Loss for G.O.P., House Rejects Spending Plan opens as follows:

House Republican leaders were dealt a rare defeat Thursday as Democrats and 22 Republicans teamed up to kill a major health and education spending measure.

So far, so good. But wait. There's more...

Hours after the loss on the spending front, the leadership early this morning forced through a separate measure making nearly $50 billion in budget cuts over five years after massaging the plan to reduce opposition from Republican moderates.

Not such a crippling blow for the G.O.P. then. But what's in the spending bill? Unfit to print, apparently. We'll have to go to Reuters for the bare bones:

The House of Representatives on Friday narrowly voted to trim social programs for the poor along with farm subsidies, student loans and other federal benefits as part of a $49.9-billion package of spending cuts... [including] $12 billion cuts to Medicaid funding over five years and... more than $14 billion in student loan reductions...

In separate news, the Senate approved more tax cuts.

— Larry, Trickle-Down Monkey, Light Reading