How about we just tax Democrats?

When President Obama agreed to keep the Bush tax rates, my wife had to slap me, hard.

I was about this far from saying something nice about the man from Kenya finally doing something right.

The impulse soon passed.

While the tax rates don't represent a cut anywhere except inside the Beltway, they need to be extended just to keep taxes from going up and crashing the economy a second time. For this reason, Obama's agreement seemed like a momentary but welcome flash of reason from an increasingly irrational administration.

But like any bill involving Democrats, the main reason for the agreement became buried under tons of pork before the Senate Democrats could bring themselves to vote for it earlier today.

And not even the threat of losing unemployment extensions can keep the House Democrats from trying to drain the blood of the dead by raising the so-called estate tax, proving once again it's not about the little guy, it's about Nancy Pelosi's continued use of Air Force planes as her personal taxis.

Lost in the shuffle are the long-term unemployed, who still can't find jobs and who are about to lose their benefits in a lovely Christmas present wrapped in a federal bow if the House doesn't act.

Unlike many conservatives, I have no problem with extending such benefits. If we don't, those same folks will just end up on welfare and we'll still be paying for them.

But the way the game is played, whenever someone starts talking about cuts to the federal budget, politicians present the public with the choice of cutting Social Security or welfare, unemployment or Medicare. But those are false choices.

There are literally trillions of dollars being wasted by our government that could be eliminated without touching our social nets, or even our military preparedness. Start with cutting congressional salaries and benefits, then proceed to shut the many worthless and largely unconstitutional agencies we pay for, such as the EPA or Department of Education (which just sucks up money from local schools across the land).

And while we're at it, a little justice should be served up against the Barney Franks, Chuck Schumers and other Democrats whose committees set up banks, along with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, to fail, plunging us into this economic mess.

Now that would be a Christmas present I'd like to open.