I got curious yesterday about these folks in Congress who think that people who are old, sick, and poor, or just part of the plain old endangered middle class, need to be hit with tax increases in order to provide continued tax cuts to the wealthy.

Oh, I know, they don’t describe what they’re doing as raising taxes on the rest of us. But that’s what they are in fact doing. Most of us will get far less in government services while paying the same taxes. It’s like what happens when Coke starts selling 20-can cases at the same price as the old 24 cans. It’s a disguised price increase. So it is with taxes.

In any case, Eric Cantor has been in the news as a leader in the “don’t ask the rich to pay their share” crew. So I decided to check him out.

Here’s a link to the personal financial disclosure Cantor filed covering the 2010 calendar year.

It quickly becomes clear why he isn’t worried about protecting Medicare or social security.

In addition to his congressional salary, Cantor lists about 13 pages of assets and investments.

Then there’s his wife, Diana, an attorney who now has what appears to be her own company.

She sits on the board of Dominos Pizza and Media General, Inc. She does not have to report income earned from those positions. But, luckily, the companies do disclose that information to stockholders and to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

According to the most recent proxy statement filed by Media General, Diana Cantor owns or controls 46,556 shares of Media General stock. Those used to be worth something, but the stock is now sitting below $3 per share.

While the company’s stock was sliding, Mrs. Cantor was paid $64,125 in cash for her service on the board last year, with an equal amount paid in company stock.

She also did pretty well at Domino’s Pizza Inc, where she ended the year with 61,750 shares of stock now valued about $26 per share, according to the company’s recent proxy statement.

For her service as a director of Domino’s, she was paid $87,500 in cash, $74,500 in stock awards, and another $31,680 in stock options, for a total of $193,760 during 2010. She was the highest paid member of the board of directors.

Oh, and when the Cantors retire? They’ll draw their social security along with the rest of us, even though they don’t need it at all.

Here’s the interesting thing. Cantor is at or below the average member of the House of Representatives, according to this profile by OpenSecrets.org.

Do you remember this depiction of the Roman Senate from Mel Brooks’ History of the World: Part I? It’s pretty much where we are today.