Government should be like United Way....Or why I may be a republican with a socially liberal agenda.

I love paying my taxes. I feel patriotic doing it. I really really do...but I can't help but wonder what would happen if our government would let us designate our donation like United Way does. We could have areas of interest like "Security", "Education", "Infrastructure", "Agriculture", "Disaster Relief", "Social Programs", "Scientific Research", "Health Care" and "The Arts" an only 15% could go to administrative costs. We could still have the general fund that the government could work with and they could be like the United Way committee's that take care of the details of where things should go. I guess I just keep hearing about the "Pork" in the stimulus package and the things that people are referencing are all things that I feel passionately for and wish that I could just designate my taxes to go to them and I know there are a lot of people who wish that money wasn't going towards those types of programs and this way it is more democratic.

A lot of people say you can do this by using tax credit type things, but this way you would be making a conscious effort when you paid your taxes and would feel better about doing it. You would see what the money goes towards and that you are making the country a better place. I figure you still have to pay your share, you just get to help pick out where it gets to go to. I also realize that this is why we elect officials, but sometimes they don't listen to what their constitutes want and this would take the greed out of government in a way and make paying taxes a little less painful.