"If that sounds like the siren song of privatization designed to lure the nation into shattering two of the most successful and crucial social programs in America, it's because it is.
It is what Ryan and Romney have in mind, have, at least in Ryan's case, had in mind all along when talking about "government-dependent" Americans. The solution: Turn everything over to individuals. Make us into a you're-on-your-own society, as Bill Clinton described it in his convention speech in Charlotte. That is exactly the way things were when those programs were initiated 75 years and 45 years ago. A dog-eat-dog society. A let-the-devil-take-the-hindmost society. The good old days."
