So I was intrigued when the President said, at a press conference this week, that the road ahead for our nation would "require difficult choices and additional sacrifices" from the American people.

Fair enough. We are, after all, in a quagmire of a war and may be on the brink of a national recession. So what should those sacrifices be - and who should make them? After mouthing some platitudes on finding a "new way forward" in Iraq, the President offered up this gem: "I encourage you all to go shopping more."

Go shopping more? With what, the money left over after we use our paychecks (which have barely increased) to pay off our schooling, energy and health care bills, which have skyrocketed? Or perhaps we should just rack up more credit card debt, already at record highs.

If we all worked for Goldman Sachs and were taking home record bonus checks, perhaps we could spend our way to shared prosperity. But shared prosperity isn't .really the President's goal.

Case in point: after years of showing absolutely no interest in increasing the federal minimum wage, this week we learned that the President has finally agreed to play. But only if Congress also passes "tax and regulatory relief" for small businesses.

Why should a raise for American minimum wage workers be conditional?

It wasn't for Vice President Cheney. He got a pay increase (up to $215,700), as did other federal employees, thanks to an executive order signed on Thursday by President Bush.

It continues to amaze me that a President who only sees clear contrasts between freedom and tyranny and good and evil abroad is blind to the huge economic divide here at home. For the first time this year, the Forbes 400 richest Americans list will highlight only billionaires, who have a combined net worth of $1.29 trillion. At the same time, one in eight Americans and almost one in four blacks lives in poverty.

If the President really believes in sacrifice, he would call on the richest Americans to go without one or two tax cuts. Or he would get the CEOs of big pharmaceutical companies in a room and urge them to redirect some of their profits to bring down the cost of prescription drugs.

Don't hold your breath. Turns out, the only thing Bush is really interested in sacrificing is reality.