Regressive price indexing: Bush's notion of "progressive price indexing," a term the corporate media's been gobbling up, has a nifty, forward-looking, dare I say liberal, whiff to it. Heck, the way the prez talked about it the other night—how "people who are better off" will see reduced Social Security benefits under his reform plan—it almost sounded like he wants to do what we centrists and lefties have been pushing for: stopping government handouts for the rich.

But not so fast. He said benefits will be cut for everyone except “the bottom 30 percent of earners, or those who make less than about $20,000 currently.” So to be better off means to make more than $20,000 a year. That is, if you make $22,610—the 2005 poverty-line cut-off for a family of five, your benefits will be cut. Or it you're a recent graduate making $20,000 a year, you'll be hit too. Think Progress compares that to Bush's statements used to sell his tax cuts:

A 3/8/01 White House fact sheet entitled “President’s Tax Relief Plan Gives Greatest Relief to Lowest Income Taxpayers,” touts that the “share of income taxes paid is reduced for all income groups below $100,000 in income.”

So to sell his tax cuts, Bush implied that anything under $100,000 was “low income.” Now, to sell his Social Security package, anything over $20,000 is “better off.”