The unfortunate thing is that even if they never CHOOSE to cut the entitlement programs or pork barrel and such, these cuts will occur anyway due to the economic meltdown that will almost certainly occur in the coming decades due to the (what was it 50 trillion dollar I heard?) entitlements we've booked ourselves for for this baby boomer generation. The money may very well simply run OUT. The programs will falter or fall altogether because we simply won't have the money to run them.
So my thought is, they'll have to deal with the economic theory one day whether they like it or not.
The Pres mentioned that in the SOTU. Congress has to deal with the entitlements and not just let it slide year after year.