"It is time to take a stand," said Bunning, "I am tired of the massive national debt that will be doubled in five years."

And so, Republicans started what might be the first of many, many votes in an effort to put Democrats on the record as The Party That Won't Pay For Anything.

Bunning forced two votes on amendments to pay for the over $100 billion that would be exempted from the brand new PAYGO (Pay-as-you-go) law - you can read the Congressional Budget Office report on that at http://bit.ly/bYMyMg .

Bunning lost his first amendment 56-41 and the second 61-36, again demonstrating that it is easy to talk about paying for things, but a bit more difficult to get both parties to agree on doing it.

Sen. George LeMieux (R-FL) went after the bill on those grounds as well, raising a point of order that the bill violates the brand new PAYGO law, because the extra spending is not offset by budget cuts.

Democrats denounced the move to stop them from declaing over $100 billion in benefits spending as an emergency - allowing it to be added to the deficit, and not have it covered by the PAYGO law.

"This amendment kills jobs," said Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT). "This sends a terrible signal to millions of Americans."

But Republicans argued the terrible signal is the growing federal debt.

"With all due respect," said LeMieux, "my point of order will not stop these programs from being extended."

"What we will do is make sure we pay for them by the end of the year. A novel idea, that we actually pay for a program," added LeMieux.

The vote to waive the LeMieux point of order was agreed to 60-39 - Democrats needed 60 votes. The one extra came from Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME).

One thing seems certain - this is only the start of many similar votes in the Senate this year.