In a budget proposal for 2012 to be released this week, Chairman of the House Budget Committee Paul Ryan has announced plans to include over $4 trilling in federal spending cuts over the next ten years and seek to transform Medicare and Medicaid entitlement programs. The plan will draw entitlement program reform into an already contentious budget debate. Based upon the current rate of raising costs, projections estimate that the cost of Medicare is expected to increase from $396.5 billion in 2010 to $502.8 billion in 2016. Indicating that Medicare cannot be sustained on its current path, the
