I'm just numb

Read this:

White House Floats Idea of Dropping Income Tax Overhaul By EDMUND L. ANDREWS WASHINGTON, Feb. 7 — President Bush, having already set off a firestorm over his proposals to cut taxes and revamp retirement accounts, suggested today that the time might be near to drop the income tax as a whole and replace it with some form of consumption tax.

Does it occur to anyone besides me that Bush is kind of like a serial killer who keeps getting more and more outrageous in his behavior in the hope that someone will catch him and make him stop?

The idea was outlined in the White House's annual economic report to Congress. The report, prepared by the White House Council of Economic Advisers and signed by Mr. Bush, offers a scathing critique of the current system and an exuberant description of radical alternatives. The report does not make formal recommendations, and White House officials emphasized that sweeping tax overhaul was not an immediate policy goal. But many administration officials have made no secret of their fondness for fundamental tax overhaul, and the report today lays out a detailed rationale for a system that taxes spending rather than income.

Perhaps it's all just a cunning plan (Baldrick and Dubya? Hmmmm). To wit: fuck up the tax code as it currently is, then ride in on the white horse and save us from the fuckups with this brand-spanking new tax code! Lord save us from think-tank eggheads who secretly dream of one day having the power to put their graduate thesis into practice.