Sen. Max Baucus (D-MT) wants to attach an $8 billion small business tax cut provision to a Senate minimum wage hike bill, because, as he claims, a "clean" minimum wage bill would not sustain a Republican filibuster. Baucus may be playing smart politics in making an honest effort to pass good policy, or he could be simply be playing politics in staying true to his tax-cutting inner-self . In either case, what is clear is that PAYGO is doing the work that its advocates said it would: Preventing Congress from digging the Treasury deeper into the deficit hole. Not only is Baucus's "sweetener" revenue neutral, but the offsets in it make the tax code a little bit more progressive. Here are a few highlights with their respective revenues:

• Limitation of a tax shelter known as SILO (sale-in, lease-out): $4.1 billion
• $1 million ceiling on deferred income: $800 million
• Punitive damages no longer deductible: $299 million
• Certain fines and penalties no longer deductible: $244 million
• Increases in certain criminal penalties: $5 million

While we would have preferred to see a clean minimum wage bill, PAYGO has enabled revenue-neutral filibuster and veto protection while mildly increasing the progressivity of the tax code.