Ryan plan would reshape federal government

The federal budget plan unveiled by House Republican Paul Ryan on Tuesday represents a breathtaking reversal in the size, scope and role of the federal government and draws a politically explosive line between the governing agendas of the two parties. Chief among the hot buttons it pushes is Medicare, which would end in its present form under the Ryan plan, with its guaranteed and defined benefits replaced by a system in which the government helps people pay their health insurance premiums and gradually reduces the amount of money it would otherwise spend on each Medicare recipient. (MILWAUKEE JOURNAL SENTINEL, 4/6)