"The United States Needs a Middle-Class Welfare State that Is Bigger, not Smaller"

"Any rational person, with no personal pecuniary interest involved, would conclude that we should expand the stable, efficient, low-overhead public part of America’s retirement security system—Social Security—while cutting back the failed, inefficient and unreliable parts—tax-favored employer pensions and individual retirement savings accounts like 401Ks. Instead, we are barraged with propaganda demanding that we cut Social Security, the successful public program, and expand the private savings alternatives like 401Ks and IRAs that have failed so miserably.
"Why? The answer is that Wall Street wants to charge fees on as much of our retirement money as it can get its tentacles on."

Michael Lind in Salon opposes cutting Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.