Ryan Hits Back at Gingrich

The Hill reports:

[Rep. Paul] Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee, took a shot back at Gingrich, and defended his 2012 budget proposal, including its proposed Medicare reform.

"With allies like that, who needs the left?" Ryan told guest host Raymond Arroyo on conservative talker Laura Ingraham's radio show.

Gingrich distanced himself from Ryan's plan, which would transform the program into a voucher-based system for Americans under the age of 55, amid political attacks by Democrats against the plan.

"I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left-wing social engineering," Gingrich said of Ryan's plan on NBC's "Meet the Press" on Sunday. "I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate."

Ryan strongly disputed Gingrich's description of his plan, which House Republicans approved last month, and have been fighting to advance since then, despite Democrats' attacks.

"Hardly is that social engineering and radical," he said. "What's radical is kicking the can down the road."