On Monday’s edition of the Tavis Smiley show on PBS, Sen. Kent Conrad was celebrated for being named one of Time magazine’s ten best senators, due to his apparent deficit-hawkishness. But Smiley’s suspicion of deficit hawks leads to the classic liberal cliche about so-called budget cuts impoverishing the needy. Even in the Obama era, as trillion-dollar spending plans slush down the street, they drag out this shibboleth? Yep:

When you talk about entitlement programs, though, what has happened, as you know, any number of times — you’ve been on the Hill for a number of years — so often, the budget ends up being balanced on the backs of the poor. Tell me that’s not going to happen this time around.