The tax reform, social security nexus

This TNR piece rather conclusively links these two items on Bush's agenda to the sinister Ernest Christian, pro-business lobbyist and author of the "Five Easy Pieces" - a road-map to achieve essentially the same goal as the flat tax.

"Christian and [GOP strategist Grover] Norquist say they believe the White House has signed on to the incremental approach of the Five Easy Pieces, and may even be pursuing them in order," reported National Journal two years ago. The Washington Post echoed in 2003, "Placed against the tax cuts of the past three years, Christian's agenda is beginning to look like a road map."

The Five Easy Pieces strategy postulates that the long-time conservative goal of a sweepingly radical tax overhaul, such as replacing the income tax with a flat tax or a national sales tax, runs too much political risk. Instead, Christian has argued, conservatives can achieve the same goal by doing five things: cutting marginal tax rates, eliminating taxes on capital gains and dividends, allowing more generous treatment of business investment, doing away with the estate tax, and establishing tax-free personal savings accounts. The three major Bush tax cuts to date have achieved the first four pieces, partially or completely.

Two days after winning reelection, President Bush told a press conference, "We must reform our complicated and outdated tax code" and told reporters that "tax reform" was an issue on which he intended to spend his "political capital."

It really is amazing that despite the total lack of popular support for social security privatization or tax reform, Bush will work to pass both simply because together they amount to a wingnut's wet-dream.