Political capital deficit spending

Via Carpetbagger: when Bush won the 2004 election by a few percent, he boldly claimed he had political capital and he was going to spend it. Well, we all know Bush is a good spender… Unfortunately, this administration is bad at cost projection. Anyway, he didn’t budget enough capital to pull off social security reform. In the interim his support has dwindled some. But he’s still spending away.

BUSH: I've got ample capital and I'm using it to spread freedom and to protect the American people, plus we've got a strong agenda to keep this economy growing.

To strain the analogy further, Bush is now in political capital deficit spending mode. And how does one deficit spend? You borrow of course! In this case, Bush is borrowing from the power of the Republican monopoly. They're loaning him the credibility he needs to pursue his policies.

Here’s where my political economics gets a little shaky…does bad decision making “trickle down” all the way to the electorate or does the accumulated negative interest fold the Republican majority like a junk bond come elections?