Mitt Romney continues embrace of Ryan plan, says he wants to 'fundamentally transform Medicare'

Via Think Progress, here's Mitt Romney earlier today in Cedar Rapids, Iowa continuing his embrace of Paul Ryan's plan to end Medicare:

Speaker Gingrich and I have a very different view, for instance, with regards to Paul Ryan's plan and the need to fundamentally transform Medicare version 2.0, if you will, the Medicare plan for young people coming into the workforce even today. So we'll talk about those differences, and in the final analysis the American people will decide who can best lead our country at such a critical time.

Earlier, Romney went into more detail on his support for Paul Ryan's plan. Like Ryan, Romney would eliminate Medicare as it currently exists and replace it with "a premium support, almost like a voucher" in order to buy insurance. As with Ryan's plan, the amount of the voucher would depend on your income.

The only difference is that in addition to private plan options, there would be a government-run plan option as well. Romney calls this plan "standard Medicare," but that's just a rhetorical device; as he indicated in his subsequent remarks it would "fundamentally transform Medicare" from a program that provides universal coverage for the elderly to a voucher system to help cover some of the costs of health care.

Only time will tell whether Romney's gambit is enough to put bring the GOP nomination back into his grasp, but this much is certain: He's now bet his entire campaign on the idea that Medicare as we know it must be repealed. That might help him win over Republicans, but there's no way he can sell that proposal to the American public.