That’s Garnet Coleman’s assessment. I don’t agree with him that “[n]o real effort was made by the conference committee to improve the painful cuts in the House anhd Senate. The House came up by some $3 billion, and the Senate also raised its spending to more than $81 billion. Coleman characterizes the deal as “an agreement between bad and worse.” Hard to argue with that. All Democrats can do now is hope that the public is roused to anger by the cuts. That would be a first. –$4 billion cut from public schools –$4.8 billion unfunded in Medicaid –a $700 million prayer that the feds will grant a Medicaid waiver –$2.2 billion “smoke and mirrors” deferred payments to the Foundation School Program –$0 from $6.6 billion Rainy Day Fund Does anybody think it will be any different in 2013? Not I.