What political capital?

Today, George W. Bush gave a speech telling reporters that he was going to spend the political capital he earned during the election to push through Social Security reform and overhaul the tax code. It certainly was a poor choice of words, given that he has yet to veto a spending bill. Not exactly a great fiscal conservative, Bush.

Regardless, the political capital he's talking about is the gains Republicans made in both the House and Senate. Republicans, as conventional wisdom goes, have been an incredibly disciplined party, unlike the Democrats. However, seriously reforming either is a pipe dream, though overhauling the tax code is infinitely more likely (given that messing with Social Security has zero chance) and will likely cause fractures among the Republican party.

An idea floated to reform the tax code is to change it to the VAT, which would eliminate the need for any sort of income tax. That in turn, will close virtually all existing loopholes to hide income, as it is essentially a consumption tax and is unavoidable and extremely difficult to cheat. I'll have to come back to that another time, as I've got to get some more personal blogging done.

So it's just one more day to the weekend (laying low tonight, watching The OC), and I hope that I can get some people to head out on Friday, as Saturday is my first day of work at the liquor store. For $10/hour, it's a pretty easy job, composing of stocking, cashiering, and some light janitorial duties. Not bad at all. It will eat into some of my social life, but hey, my calendar hasn't been exactly packed.

Ironically, this Saturday, I actually have some plans to attend a cocktail party at Melinda's Saturday night, so I've got to get to East Boston after work. Should be fun!