OUR FIRST M.B.A. PRESIDENT

I just saw this little detail in an AP story about Bush and Cheney's annual financial disclosure statements:

Bush ... reported salting away between $1,000 and $15,000 into a health savings account through Aetna Inc.

He did?

For the love of God, why?

Bush and his wife have free health care from the government for the next thousand days. After that, the taxpayers will pay up to 75% of the cost of his health plan, and he can get treatment in any U.S. military hospital. He'll have a six-figure yearly pension in addition to, almost certainly, many lucrative honoraria; he and his wife will surely be offered seven-figure book deals. This is in addition to the current wealth AP reports:

The disclosure said Bush's 1,583-acre central Texas ranch was worth between $1 million and $5 million. The president also reported having at least $3.95 million in Treasury notes, $945,000 in certificates of deposits, $153,000 in checking and money market accounts and at least $1 million in investments held in a blind trust. Bush owns the mineral rights valued at up to $15,000 on property in Reeves County, Texas. He also owns a tree farm, which is not expected to have commercial sales until 2007, which has a value of just over $700,000.

What -- he's worried about not having the money to cover the copay on a prostate exam in 2009?

I can only guess that he started this account just so he could use it as a political prop. ("See? I have one myself. You should get one") But I didn't know he had the account. Did you? It's rather pointless to do something like this for effect without telling anyone you've done it. And if he had told anyone he'd done it, most people would just react in the logical way: "Aren't we going to pay for your health care for the rest of your life?"

So it's just money wasted.

And we trust this guy with our money?