The former Phillies pitcher and now retiring U.S. Senator from Kentucky held up a spending measure to the horror of his colleagues, both Republican and Democrat. In so doing, he revealed the phoniness of the President's Pay-As-You-Go system.

To fund extended unemployment benefits and other spending, Harry Reid asked for "unanimous consent" Jim Bunning said "I object." For a few days he stopped the government from spending another $10 billion it doesn't have.

Pay as you go is a fraud, thanks to politicians from both parties who are complicit in ignoring it, with the President's approval. Bunning, who is retiring this year, reminded the country of that before finally ending his objection.

The most interesting tid bit here is that the Senate Democrats could have easily overridden Bunning's objection by invoking cloture but didn't for political reasons. They hoped to make Bunning the poster boy for Republican obstructionism. We'll see how that works in the fall.

In the meantime, extending unemployment benefits sounds like the nice thing to do in a bad economy but all it really does is postpone most workers from hustling to find a job. That inconvenient truth won't get much play in Washington or on most editorial pages. It's not nice to point out.