RATING THE WIRE SERVICES

25 hours after the end of Bush's press conference in which he introduced new wrinkles to his Social Security plan, let's see how the wire services did in cutting through Bush's mumbo-jumbo and pointing out the obvious point, that the middle class is going to see large benefit cuts if the plan passes.

Knight Ridder:

President Bush's proposal to restore solvency to Social Security by deeply cutting benefits for some Americans faced extreme peril Friday on Capitol Hill where few lawmakers are eager to tell their constituents that they will be receiving less money in the future.

(...)

The president, in his Thursday night news conference, called for revamping Social Security by curbing the growth in benefits for middle-class and wealthy Americans while pledging that low-income workers would see their benefits rise faster than those for the well-to-do.

Reuters:

President George W. Bush appealed to Congress on Friday to back his new plan to overhaul Social Security by reducing promised benefits for all but low-income retirees, but Democrats dug in for a fight and warned about the biggest-ever cuts in the program.

Associated Press:

President Bush on Friday pitched his new proposal to fix Social Security's finances by cutting the benefit now promised to future retirees for all but the lowest-income recipients and warned Democratic opponents not to "play politics as usual" with it.

(...)

Under Bush's approach, future Social Security checks would increase more quickly for the lowest-income retirees than for everyone else. Though Bush promised that middle- and upper-income retirees would get benefits "equal to or greater than the benefits enjoyed by today's seniors," they would be smaller than what the system is now promising for the future.

All in all, it could be worse. And it has been... on TV.