Bush doesn’t suprise me much these days, but his recent comments about the rich dodging taxes crossed into the surreal. I found them so strange I wasn’t sure I heard them right. But David Corn, of The Nation, confirms that our president has given up trying to appeal to anyone who can’t afford a Major League Baseball team. Here’s the salient quote, from a so-called town hall meeting:

“That’s why you’ve got to be careful about this rhetoric, we’re only going to tax the rich. You know who the–the rich in America happen to be the small business owners. That’s what that means. Just remember, when you’re talking about, oh, we’re just going to run up the taxes on a certain number of people — first of all, real rich people figure out how to dodge taxes. [Laughter.] And the small business owners end up paying a lot of the burden of this taxation.”

Even if this is a joke, though I give Bush no such credit, how is this funny? The rich dodge taxes that the rest of us have to pay, and the president cites this as a reason to cut tax cuts on the rich? If they’re so good at avoiding them, why bother with the tax cuts in the first place? I realize this is bordering on hysterical raving, but why would any president, short of some smug asshole, even have this thought in his head? Of course, the real punchline will come when the president invokes the “class warfare” argument against anyone who suggests that his tax cuts be rescinded to pay for health care or jobs initiatives. The audacity is unbelievable.