companies. maryland's chris van hollen called the republican plan a scheme to privatize medicare. >> the value of the voucher or the premium support or whatever you want to call it does not rise at the rate of health care inflation, and what the republican budget does is say to seniors "you're on your own." >> reporter: alice rivlin was bill clinton's budget director, and worked closely with ryan to develop the premium support model for medicare. rivlin says the key question is how fast the government allows those premium support payments to grow. >> if the cap is set too tight, it will be very hard on seniors. if it is kept too loose and the program continues to grow much faster than the economy is growing, then it is not sustainable. so the point is to get a balance. >> reporter: at its core, house republicans are proposing a much more limited and smaller government, but one that could pay almost a trillion less in interest over the next decade. darren gersh, "nightly...