Battle Over Background Briefings

Live Online

I'm Live Online today at 1 p.m. ET, taking your questions about background briefings, Social Security, Saturday night's festivities, whatever. Send me your questions and comments .

Social Security Watch

McClellan promised something new before Bush's Social Security remarks yesterday in Mississippi. But there wasn't much.

Some reporters felt the biggest news came in the gaggle by deputy press secretary Trent Duffy. They interpreted one exchange to mean that Bush is not as wedded to his new "progressive indexing" proposal as he is to private accounts:

"Q Does that mean he's open to other ideas to replace the indexing proposal he just made on Thursday?"

"MR. DUFFY: The President is open to all ideas, as he said. He has put out his proposal on a way to protect the lowest-income workers, but that in the context of the legislative process, he'll welcome other ideas for solutions, and would welcome other ideas to perfect or to make the best system. That's what the President is most interested in, is providing the best solution."

As for Bush, here's the transcript of his remarks. And here's the new stuff:

"[F]irst and foremost, future generations ought to receive benefits equal to or greater than the previous generation. So I think if you've been working all your life, you ought to receive a benefit equal to or greater than the promises that I got. I think that's a fair system. So in other words, that's an important principle for people to listen to.

"Secondly, if you work hard and -- Social Security your entire life, you will not retire into poverty. The current system today, by the way, doesn't say that. The current system says you can work all your life and may end up in poverty. I don't think that's fair. I think people who have worked hard all their life and paying into the Social Security system ought to have a program that makes sure they won't retire into poverty.

"And so, therefore, I believe benefits for lower-income workers should grow faster than benefits for higher-income workers, just to make sure that someone doesn't retire into poverty. You know, you hear all this talk about benefit cuts; we're talking about making sure benefits grow at the rate of inflation -- that's what we're talking about. You've been promised something; it ought to grow at the rate of inflation. Today, if you're an upper-income worker, it grows at the rate of wage growth. What I'm telling people is, is that ought to be applying for younger -- lower-income workers, but not all workers, so that the system can take care of those at the lower income scale. That makes sense to me.

"I hope it makes sense to the United States Congress."