President Obama tried to get Republicans to oppose a payroll tax extension, but Senate Democrats are the ones now fighting it. When liberals propose tax cuts, it's almost never on the level.

When a beleaguered President Obama appeared before Congress in September to propose yet another massive stimulus spending program, including a payroll tax-cut extension paired with a "millionaire surtax," it was viewed as a shrewd political move Republicans were sure to oppose. So, why are his Senate Democrats now determined to kill payroll tax-cut legislation?

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has been falling all over himself this week to get the House-passed payroll tax-cut extension onto the Senate floor, where the Democratic majority there was ready and waiting to vote it down. Thanks to Senate rules, Republican senators were able to save the measure, but Reid is threatening to hold a spending bill hostage and shut down much of the federal government.

Why is the payroll tax cut passed Tuesday by the House in Reid's words "dead on arrival"? Maybe because it features a provision that would produce lots of real jobs — not through discredited Keynesian spending methods but by letting the private sector get going on utilizing North America's unutilized oil resources.

The House tax-cut bill includes a provision that gives the go-ahead to the Keystone XL pipeline, bringing over 700,000 barrels of black gold per day from Canada to Texas.