AP improves to educable-trainable

Yesterday we spanked AP for its omigod-stupid reporting of the basic math of the Social Security heist. Well, perhaps somebody listened, because today they fixed it:

President Bush (news - web sites) is expected to unveil his plan for a Social Security (news - web sites) overhaul in late February, with administration officials eyeing investment accounts that would hold two-thirds of workers' annual payroll taxes.

An administration official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said the size of the private accounts could be similar to those in a proposal by Sen. Lindsey Graham (news, bio, voting record), R-S.C., and the main plan from Bush's 2001 Social Security commission.

The White House cautioned Tuesday that Bush had not decided on a specific plan.

But the administration is leaning toward letting workers divert 4 percentage points of their 6.2 percent in payroll taxes — almost two-thirds — into investment accounts, up to $1,000-$1,300 a year, the official said. The remainder of the workers' payroll taxes would continue going into the system.

Tomorrow's lesson plan: the difference between publishing White House talking points and actual reporting.