Rep. Van Hollen(D-MD): Rep. Paul Ryan's Medicare plan 'very right wing,' will have 'terrible consequences'

Though Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) was only officially named as Mitt Romney's vice presidential pick on Saturday, there's already a big debate as to whether the Congressman's plan for Medicare would benefit Americans, or bring the program to its knees.

President Obama Campaign surrogate Rep. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) explains the differences between how the Affordable Care Act and Rep. Ryan’s plan would affect Medicare.

"It's a very ideological plan. It's a very right wing plan. And I think it would have terrible consequences for the vast majority of the American people," Rep. Van Hollen tells John Berman on "Early Start" this morning. "The thing about the Ryan plan is it's great for people like Mitt Romney. In fact, "Roll Call" newspaper did an independent analysis yesterday that showed under the Ryan road map, Mitt Romney's tax burden would go down to 1% at the same time under the Ryan budget plan. You're asking seniors who have $23,000 median income, seniors on Medicare to pay much higher costs over time. Whereas, what the Obama plan does, what the Democratic proposal does is reduce the overall cost in the Medicare system by changing the payment incentives in the plan."

See more from Rep. Van Hollen's interview in the video clip above.