Thinking Up New Ideas

Now this is the type of off-center thinking we need:

NICEVILLE, Fla. (Reuters) - President Bush (news - web sites) said on Tuesday that abolishing the U.S. income tax system and replacing it with a national sales tax was an idea worth considering.

"It's an interesting idea," Bush told an "Ask President Bush" campaign forum here. "You know, I'm not exactly sure how big the national sales tax is going to have to be, but it's the kind of interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously."
Republican economists who speak regularly to the White House have said that the Bush campaign has been mulling the idea of an overhaul of the tax code as part of an agenda for a second term should Bush win reelection.

It's about time somebody in the mainstream started pushing new tax ideas. The Donkey's would lose their collective minds at the mere thought of it. Good.

Update: Oops! Premature etaxulation. The Whitehouse is backing off:

Administration officials on Wednesday denied that President Bush is considering a national sales tax, a day after the Republican incumbent created a stir by calling such a tax "an interesting idea that we ought to explore seriously."
Democratic presidential nominee John Kerry seized on Bush's comments -- made while the president was campaigning in Florida Tuesday -- and suggested such a plan would create a new tax on working families.
"Families already squeezed by rising health care costs, gas costs and college costs would have to carry a whole new tax burden," Kerry said in a statement.

Bush pussed out, sadly.