Well, that makes sense...

"We should not cut the benefits of any law-abiding retiree by one dime or raise the taxes of any law-abiding worker by one dime until we have done our best to ensure that all taxpayers are complying with the current tax laws," said Sen. Max Baucus of Montana, the top Democrat on the Senate Finance Committee.

...which leads us to this week's edition of the

J. Russell George, the Treasury Department's inspector general for taxation, told lawmakers that the government loses billions of dollars annual because businesses avoid paying the employment taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare.

According to the Treasury auditors, sole proprietors of businesses are abusing Subchapter S corporations to dodge nearly $6 billion a year in payroll taxes, leading Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR) to call them "Social Security scofflaws."

Now, since we know this, and we know we need the money, you'd think there'd be a mad dash to collect what's properly owed. You'd think so, until you paused to reflect on who's running the show in D.C...

The committee chairman, Sen. Charles Grassley, said some proposals to collect unpaid taxes or expand the reach of employment taxation might be too difficult to pass.

Much easier, I suppose, to pass some dicey scheme that robs Social Security of even more funding through Bushco's private account wet dreams, or to cut the social safety net out from under retirees with benefit cuts.

Scandalous.