Yeah, yeah, I know, politics is the art of the possible yada yada. Still,

though I hate to be a wet blanket, I’m bound to say I couldn’t care less

about the tax cut. I have a comparatively simple financial life, yet it has

been my experience that come tax time, nobody knows what my taxes due should

be to better than a five per cent margin. I mean, if I went to a dozen

different accountants with my papers, I’d get a dozen different numbers for

my taxes due, varying in a range of plus or minus five per cent around some

mean. Any tax benefit to me from the Bush plan is just lost in this fuzzy

penumbra. I assume a lot of other people have even fuzzier ones. The U.S.

tax code is desperately in need of simplification, and the kind of tinkering

being done in this latest plan, while worthy and well-intentioned, is deeply

unimpressive to me–and, I would guess, to a lot of other voters.