Bush pledges to make Social Security benefits progressive?

President Bush actually piqued my interest when he dropped this one in his news conference last night, as reported by the New York Times today:

Mr. Bush, in his television news conference on Thursday night, proposed that benefits for affluent future retires be trimmed so that retirees who were less well off could be protected.

Wow! Admittedly, he had me hooked on this one. Perhaps, just perhaps, Bush has decided that he needed to make some moves to reach across the isle and get some bipartisan support for social security reforms. Afterall, support has been tepid at best. Then we get this mixed message:

Today, the president's chief spokesman, Scott McClellan, said early news accounts had left the impression that cuts would apply "to everybody across the board."

When asked who would be defined as "affluent" under Mr. Bush's proposals, Mr. McClellan said, "Well, we're going to be working with Congress on those issues."

I suppose we'll see exactly what this means when Republicans present their draft proposal in the coming days.