Paul Ryan on the Debt Commission

The smartest and best Republican in Congress right now, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, on the Debt Commission's report:

Ryan is exactly right:  we can't balance our budget and put our fiscal house in order until we fix health care, and specifically Medicare.   Here's a chart that tells the tale:

As this shows, projected Medicare spending drives the deficit in the years after 2025 or so, which in turn drives the exploding interest payments.  (It's also worth noting that many of these projections rely on interest rates on US sovereign debt remaining relatively low... they won't.)