This morning, House Budget committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wis., and Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., formally released a bombshell in Washington – a bipartisan Medicare proposal that could turn out to be the biggest news story of the year. Not only will it have an immediate impact on the Republican primary race and reshuffle the deck for the 2012 elections, but it could represent the future basis for reforming the program that’s the primary driver of the nation’s debt crisis.

The blueprint, which the lawmakers described in a joint Wall Street Journal op-ed and outlined further in a pamphlet, represents a modified version of the House budget proposal that Ryan unveiled this April. That means that a liberal Democrat is now on record endorsing Ryan’s basic model for transitioning Medicare for those under 55 into system in which individuals are given subsidies, called premium supports, to choose among competing health insurance plans. But in a major concession that is likely to rattle conservatives – for good reason, in my view – Ryan has agreed to keep traditional Medicare as a permanent option for seniors. And in case you don’t understand quite how permanent, Wyden wanted to reassure liberals at a joint event this morning hosted by the Bipartisan Policy Center.