WILLblog

U.S. President George W. Bush last night held the first prime-time news conference of his second term, an appearance "hastily arranged" according to the NPR report on All Things Considered. Among the highlights were the first details of what might become an actual proposal to deal with the putative Social Security funding crisis. It actually looks like the President may propose something that looks like a "progressive" benefit, with lower-income workers gaining more over time than higher-income beneficiaries. We'll see how that works out if it comes to real legislation in our, er, progressive Congress. The President also suggested that today's gas prices reflect the cost of inaction on the energy policies he proposed five years ago. Which is to say we should have been drilling for more oil in more places all along, just like he wants us to do now. You can still write off a big chunk of the cost of your Hummer H2, but that has nothing to do with energy policy, does it? If you missed President Bush's news conference last night, you can hear the whole thing right here: streaming RealAudio file MP3 download