Countering Frank Luntz

We need some extremely plain talk to counter Frank Luntz's latest salvo, in which he instructs Republicans to say the Ryan budget "strengthens," "preserves," and "protects" Medicare and Social Security. 

Karoli at Crooks & Liars obliges:

Here it is, plain and simple. Paul Ryan is a fervent believer in killing social insurance by privatizing it for profit. To that end, his budget proposal ends Medicare. It ends it. Period. There is no "choice" involved. It ends Medicare and shifts the burden for medical costs onto senior citizens. Similarly, his scheme for Social Security ends it. Period. It takes our retirement funds and gives them to Wall Street, where all the risk then shifts over to the retiree and all the profit heads into Wall Street's pocket. 

Wall Street and health insurers benefit from Paul Ryan's plan, but people don't. They can paint that pig with all kinds of different shades of lipstick but everyone needs to know that Paul Ryan aims to destroy the social safety nets by shifting all costs and risks from the government to individuals, terminating the agreement that has worked so well for so many years, and handing our retirement to profit-driven enterprise.

Emphasis added. And another thing: we have to stop saying "entitlements," with its horrible something-for-nothing framing. We paid into those programs for years. We earn those benefits. They are insurance programs, shared-risk programs. What Ryan proposes is to strip out the profits and saddle us with the risk.

UPDATE: Even shorter and more to the point, via the Overpass Light Brigade: