Suddenly Paul Ryan is everybody’s running mate

No sooner had Mitt Romney’s campaign announced Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan as the GOP’s vice presidential candidate than Nevada Democrats set about trying to marry him to Republicans running for Senate and House seats here.

And that sort of thing isn’t even legal in the Silver State!

But the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee both dubbed Ryan the new "running mate" for U.S. Sen. Dean Heller and Rep. Joe Heck.

Heller has boasted about how he "proudly" voted for the Ryan budget plans, one of which would have completely transformed the current government run, fee-for-service Medicare program into a privatized version.

And he didn’t just do it once. He did it twice, once in the House and again after he was appointed to the Senate last year in the wake of John Ensign’s resignation. When Ryan’s budget came up a third time, Heller voted no, saying a series of votes held that particular day was a political exercise and not a real attempt to pass a spending plan.

For Heck, Ryan is not only a House colleague, but a person who has also said Social Security is a "Ponzi scheme." (Technically, Ryan didn’t invent the phrase; he agreed with Rick Perry’s use of the term.) And so does Heck, who has repeatedly called Social Security a "pyramid scheme" that he says isn’t working.

So expect to hear about the "Heller-Ryan-Romney budget," and Heck’s "unwelcome, unpopular running mate – the Ryan budget that ends Medicare" from now until Election Day.

For the record, Heller and Heck are not at all displeased with Ryan as a choice. Heller called Ryan "a good man," an "incredible thinker and a tireless worker" with the "courage to make the tough decisions needed to restore our nation’s fiscal health." For his part, Heck said Ryan is "an excellent choice for a vice presidential candidate" and a Romney-Ryan administration would lead "to less spending, more efficient government and more economic growth."

By ending Medicare as we know it, in part.

But that may never happen. Because no sooner had Romney named Ryan to the ticket than he reminded reporters that the Romney budget plan would be the official one.

But wait! Conservatives (and also Romney) object that while Ryan’s first budget plan may have done away with traditional Medicare, his second plan didn’t. In fact, it offered people a choice: traditional Medicare or a privatized equivalent that met the same tough standards. And it was introduced with liberal Democrat Ron Wyden of Oregon to boot!

Indeed, that’s the case, although Wyden was at pains on Monday, trying to distance himself from the Medicare plan he jointly presented with Ryan in 2011. (Their idea went nowhere, but commentators have remarked that Ryan-Wyden is very similar to Romney’s Medicare approach. So Romney may be advancing the Ryan budget plan after all.)

In the face of all this "Mediscare," Republicans will no doubt fall back to the line that at least Ryan has come up with a budget, which is more than we have seen from Democrats. Two things Democrats could offer in reply: First, it’s not as if the government has shut down without a budget. (In fact, money is actually spent by appropriations bills, which have been passed or extended regularly. A budget merely sets limits on those spending bills.) Second, a plan that does away with traditional Medicare isn’t that hard to craft. Coming up with a plan that preserves Medicare – actual, real, worked-well-for-nearly-half-a-century Medicare – now that’s hard.

In fact, it would be really nice if the Democrats could show exactly how they’re going to do that.

Steve Sebelius is a Review-Journal political columnist and author of the blog SlashPolitics.com. Follow him on Twitter (@SteveSebelius) or reach him at (702) 387-5276 or ssebelius@reviewjournal.com.