Two weeks ago, our post exposed the Texas-sized loopholes that Congress exploited in its Pay-As-You-Go (PAYGO) rules to pass laws that increase our budget deficit.

Well, they’ve done it again.

Last night, the Senate passed and the President signed a bill to extend unemployment benefits for up to 99 weeks, and to avert a pending decrease in doctors’ Medicare reimbursements.

The bill piles on another $18 billion in government borrowing, something that should have triggered PAYGO rules and forced the Senate to offset the new spending with cuts elsewhere.

But $16 billion of this new spending was defined as an “emergency” and exempt from PAYGO rules. The remaining $2 billion was let off the hook because of a Medicare loophole.

The final product still raises our national debt by $18 billion – it just does so in a way that allows the Senate to pretend like they’re following the rules.

When these PAYGO rules were first signed into law, the Defeat The Debt campaign called them “toothless” and “ineffective.” Congress is determined to prove us right.

The Senate may be able to make billions of dollars disappear on paper, but you can be sure that the money is real – after all, it’s going to come out of your taxes sooner or later.