Paul Ryan must be planning the mother of all magic asterisks

Ryan's budget will have all the value of washing clean dishes Next Tuesday, House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan will unveil the GOP's latest budget document, a plan that party leaders say will balance the budget within ten years. Jonathan Weisman of The New York Times previews a few key nuggets:

WASHINGTON ' House Republicans will preserve Medicare cuts that their presidential nominee loudly denounced last year and accept tax increases they sternly opposed just months ago in a new tax-and-spending blueprint that would bring the federal budget into balance by 2023, senior Republicans said Wednesday.

But the politically charged proposal, which emerged as the House easily passed legislation to keep the government financed through Sept. 30, is not expected to include workers currently 55 and over in major changes recommended for Medicare, after more moderate Republicans objected.

So Republicans will once again endorse the Medicare cost-savings achieved by Obamacare and now for the first time they will embrace Clinton-era tax rates on top earners. Those decisions are good for a few chuckles at their flip-flopping, but they were widely expected.

What is new, however, is the fact that Ryan's budget apparently won't include any additional changes to Medicare over the next ten years, preserving the GOP's pledge to not change the program for people 55 and older. They'll still end Medicare as we know it for everyone else, a decision which almost certainly would lead to exploding costs or service disruptions for the final wave of people to qualify for the current Medicare system, but let's set that aside for the moment and take a look at the implications of taking Medicare changes off the table for achieving a balanced budget within ten years.

Follow below the fold to see how Ryan's plan would mean cutting domestic programs, including Medicaid, by nearly 40 percent'unless he includes a magic asterisk, which he surely will.