After nearly five years of rewarding the most fortunate, the plan touted by President Bush seeks to reduce benefits for the middle class while at the same time benefiting the bottom third of society. In his speech Thursday, Bush even envisioned the poor saving up assets that they in turn pass to their children.
As the full dimensions of President Bush's Social Security plan come into view, so too does a broader vision: improving benefits for the poorest Americans while reducing the reliance of everyone else on government programs that long have seen them through economic difficulties.
Although Bush devoted most of his prime-time news conference Thursday to describing how he would expand Social Security protections, virtually all of his improvements would be aimed at the bottom one-third of American wage earners. The remaining two-thirds would see their future Social Security benefits curtailed, a reduction that they'd be encouraged to make up by saving and investing of their own.
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