Social Security is not his "pet project", that honor goes to FDR. It's been known since the days of Ronald Reagan that Social Security was going to be needing fixing. You can either do away with Social Security and risk being a minority party for 40 or 50 years, or you can strengthen and modernize Social Security because the Social Security as we know it cannot function in the modern society, with as many recipients of the program as there are, in a country that has swelled in population since Social Security became a reality during the Great Depression. You can pitch fits and moan about President Bush now, but in the future, history will show that you were nothing more than a bitter, petty, whiner.
After NCLB, prescription drugs, etc. I am not sure I can trust Bush with social security reform. For all I know, he will turn it into a bigger welfare scheme. We all know the Dems will not vote on a provision that will absolve the govt from individuals making stupid decisions about themselves. The only solution in that case is to trash the program altogether, and we all know Bush doesn't have the guts to propose that.
Anyway, by his pet welfare scheme, I meant the prescription drug proposal which we all know he lobbied conservatives personally to vote for.