This Chart Illustrates Why Medicare Is in Desperate Need of Reform

You know how Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan keeps going on about Medicare and how we need to reform it? Why does he feel like he needs to keep bringing it up --

Oh, good grief. Look at that.

"In the words of Sesame Street, one of these spending components of the long-run budget plan is not like the others; one of these entitlements is not the same; can you spot which one?" writers at Zero Hedge joke.

As the above chart -- based on the CBO's Updated Budget Projections: Fiscal Years 2012 to 2022 and a Bank of America Merrill Lynch Global Research report -- illustrates, the answer is painfully, shockingly clear.

Maybe this is why Ryan is so insistent on having a debate on Medicare reform.

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Front page photo courtesy the AP.