At his speech at AEI this afternoon, House Budget chairman Paul Ryan acknowledged that Senate Democrats and President Obama will likely choose not to adopt the House Republican 2012 budget, which offers sweeping, comprehensive reforms to Medicare and the federal tax code and pledges to cut over $5 trillion from the president’s proposed budget. That would effectively kill the plan for at least the next year and a half leading up to the 2012 election.

Ryan indicated he would continue to make the case for these reforms and Republicans will “offer the country a choice” in the next election. So far, likely GOP candidate Tim Pawlenty has said that Ryan’s budget provides “real leadership.” Mitt Romney “applaud[s]” Ryan and says that “he is setting the right tone for finally getting spending and entitlements under control. Anyone who has read my book knows that we are on the same page.”