TomPaine.com - Bush's Snake Oil Plan

TomPaine.com - Bush's Snake Oil Plan: "President Bush’s staff signaled ahead of time that he would use his first prime-time news conference in ages to somehow give a shot in the arm to his floundering campaign for privatization. Instead, by giving a few more details about how specifically he would cut Social Security benefits, he managed to shoot himself in the foot—again.

With the president facing growing criticism over a troubled economy, increasing oil prices, continuing American deaths in Iraq, his embrace of Tom Delay’s corporate corruption, and the sinking popularity of his Social Security plan, Bush’s staff rolled out a proposal that only conservative Washington policy wonks could understand or love. And ironically, they put the president before the press to pose as a champion of the poor—which, translated from Bush-speak, means the cuts to retirement benefits for the poor will merely be less than the cuts he wants to make for “people who are better of"