The latest Newsweek also features a short chat with Texas Gov. Rick Perry:

In the book, you call Social Security a ?failure? that ?we have been
forced to accept for more than 70 years now.? Is it time for it to end?

I would suggest a
legitimate conversation about letting the states keep their money and
implement [their own pension] programs. The first step in finding the
solutions is admitting we have a problem?and admitting that Social
Security is a Ponzi scheme.

What about Medicare? Republicans in Washington
are railing against Medicare cuts in the new Democratic health-care
law?even though they?re exactly the kind of cuts they?ve been advocating
for decades.

I would suggest that any Republican who is not
going to work toward finding a solution to our budgetary problems ought
to just go home and let somebody come who really is interested in not
spending more dollars that we don?t have on programs that we don?t want.

Ronald Reagan and George W. Bush also wanted to slash spending, and
yet government grew when they were in office. Can conservatives actually
reverse the last 75 years of federal policy?

Sure. Absolutely they can. We just have to be
principled and disciplined and learn how to say no. The idea that you
can?t put the genie back in the bottle is not correct.