The "deficit reduction" bill

Wonder why I'm no Republican, and am instead a libertarian? How about fiscal discipline, for starters? From Breitbart:

The Republican-controlled Senate passed legislation to cut federal deficits by $39.7 billion on Wednesday by the narrowest of margins, 51-50, with Vice President Dick Cheney casting the deciding vote.

The measure, the product of a year's labors by the White House and the GOP in Congress, imposes the first restraints in nearly a decade in federal benefit programs such as Medicaid, Medicare and student loans.

First of all, how can it be a true "deficit reduction" bill if it only cuts $40 billion from the bloated budget we've become accustomed to seeing every year? Like Chris Farley's character Matt Foley used to say on SNL, "that, and a nickel, will get you a hot cup of jack squat!"

Secondly, how pathetic is it that the GOP, the purported "party of limited government and fiscal discipline", needed the VP to break a tie?

Thirdly, how come the mountains of pork contained in the energy and transporation budgets couldn't be stripped? Actually, that question is rhetorical, since we all know the answer to THAT!

Finally, I'd like to see specifics of what was reduced from Medicade, Medicare, and student loans before reflexively saying "Those heartless bastards!" After all, there's so much fraud, waste, and duplication at several levels in the federal government, so if those were some of the targets of the cuts, I have no problem with that. We need more of that.

If not for national defense and resistance to the left's harmful and punitive tax (and social) policies, I'd have little need for the Republican Party at all.