Everybody’s linking today to this set of proposed changes to the federal budget that would result in about a $350 billion surplus on projected 2006 tax revenues.

Don’t be fooled: It’s a stupid proposal. Among other things, the revised budget calls for the dismantlement of the Department of Education under the banner of “Public education doesn’t work.” That’s exactly the opposite of the approach we need to take. Yes, our public education system is crumbling, possibly even fatally flawed. But public education can work. We just need to figure out how to pull it off. Shitcanning the Department of Education is not a great way to save money. It’d be like covering your summer electric bill by eBaying all the insulation from inside your walls.

But even worse in my mind than calling for the abolition of public education is a small, inconspicuous item on the list of proposed cuts: the elimination of the National Park Service. That’s worse than calling for an end to public education because nobody in his right mind would agree to abolish public education, but a whole lot of Americans who’ve never been to our national parks could probably be conned into supporting that cut.

I don’t want to sound like some kind of damned tree hugger here, folks, but Sequoia National Park in eastern California is one of my favorite places on the face of the Earth. The Giant Forest is an awe-inspiring place, unique in all the world. If you want to drive in from Visalia, $10 per car buys you a seven-day stay in the park. I for one am not wild about the idea of paying $35 per day per person to visit Disney’s Really Big Tree Adventureland Resort instead.

By all means, let’s slash the federal budget down to the bone. Let’s eliminate some conspicuously embarrassing wastes of money like Amtrak and the prescription drug entitlement program. But let’s keep the stuff we need, okay? Let’s keep public education. Let’s keep the national parks. Let’s keep medical savings accounts and tax deductions for charitable donations and the sort of agricultural research programs that staved off a global famine in the 1960s and 1970s. Let’s cut to the bone, not saw off the whole damn leg, okay?