budget conference committee. What are the odds that Paul Ryan's head will explode?

In what can only be seen as good news for people who like traditional earned-benefit programs like Social Security and Medicare, here's one name that appears on the list of Senate conferees in the upcoming Paul Ryan-Patty Murray budget talks -- Vermont independent Sen. Bernie Sanders. This ensures that beneficiaries of these programs will, at the very least, have one strong, supportive voice in the room who won't go down in a squishy heap of "grand bargaining." (I'm sure Paul Ryan is thrilled.)