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Outraged constituents have showed up at town hall events across the country to protest a Republican budget plan that would end Medicare as it exists today but Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) says it's all been a misunderstanding.

"The crowds are really getting bigger and people are getting much more anxious about where the country is headed," Ryan told ABC's Christiane Amanpour in an interview that aired Sunday.

"This is the sign of the times, I think. I think it's sign of anxiety of the times and sign of misinformation perpetrated out there."

"What do you mean, misinformation?" Amanpour asked.

"There are TV, radio and phone calls running, trying to scare seniors. The Democratic National Committee is running phone calls to seniors in my district, TV ads, saying we're hurting current senior, which in fact that's not the case," Ryan explained.

But Democrats claim that the Republican plan authored by Ryan would force millions of seniors to pay an extra $2.2 billion next year alone.

And they say that for Americans under 55, the plan would effectively eliminate Medicare by replacing it with a voucher system. The Congressional Budget Office has predicted that in ten years, the new Medicare system would cost each senior about $6,500 extra per year.

"Put these reforms in now, they don't take effect for ten years to give people time to prepare," Ryan told constituents at one town hall last week.

"If we keep kicking the can down the road and keep going trillions of dollars deeper in the hole, then the reforms will be sudden, urgent, severe and immediate, and then it will catch people by surprise."

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Tea party favorite Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN) said Sunday that he was unlikely to support the new budget deal because it doesn't strip all funds for Planned Parenthood.

The last-minute deal between House Republicans and Democrats aimed to slash over $38 billion from government spending levels.

Pence argued on ABC's This Week Sunday that those cuts alone weren't enough.

"From what I know, it sounds like [House Speaker] John Boehner got a good deal -- probably not good enough for me to support it," he told ABC's Christiane Amanpour.

"Let me explain. I'm pro-life. I don't apologize for it. I also think it's morally wrong to take the tax dollars of millions of pro-life Americans and use it to fund abortion providers."

"You know the federal funds don't do that?" Amanpour pointed out.

"They tried to make this about women's health," Pence said of Democrats. "It wasn't about that. Planned Parenthood's clinics focus mainly on abortion."

Pence's statement is similar to a claim made by Sen. John Kyl (R-AZ) last week.

"If you want an abortion, you go to Planned Parenthood, and that's well over 90 percent of what Planned Parenthood does," Kyl said.

The truth is that in 2009, 96 percent of the organization's activities were dedicated cancer screenings, STD or STI testing, counseling and education, or pregnancy testing and prevention.

"What was clear here, this administration, and liberals in Congress were willing to shut the government down to continue to fund abortion providers in this country," Pence added.

The Indiana Republican made it clear in a recent speech on the House floor that it was Republicans who were willing to see the government shut down if Democrats didn't "respect our values."

"If Democrats here in Washington would rather play political games and shut down the government than support our troops, defend our treasury, and respect our values, then I say, 'Shut it down,'" he said.

"It's time to take a stand. We need to say to liberals, 'This far and no further,'" Pence told a tea party rally last week. "And if liberals in the Senate would rather play political games and force a government shutdown instead of accepting a modest down payment on fiscal discipline and reform, I say, 'Shut it down.'"

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It may just be wishful thinking.

House Majority Leader Eric Cantor (R-VA) admitted Sunday that he didn't expect Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare to be around when he retires.

"What we [House Republicans] have said is this: We'll protect today's seniors and those nearing retirement, but for the rest of us, all of us, who are 54 and younger, I know the programs are not going to be there for me when I retire," Cantor told Fox News' Chris Wallace.

"They can't," he added.

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) unveiled last week the Republican plan to cut $6 trillion from federal spending over ten years, including deep cuts to entitlements. Medicaid alone would be cut by $760 billion.

"The Medicaid reductions are off the baseline," Cantor explained. "So what we're saying is allow states to have the flexibility to deal with their populations, their indigent populations and the health care needs the way they know how to deal with them."

"But you are giving them less money to do it," Wallace noted.

"In terms of the baseline, that is correct," Cantor admitted. "We believe that if you put in place the mechanisms that allow for personal choice as far as Medicare is concerned, as well as the programs in Medicaid, that we can actually get to a better resolve and do what most Americans are learning how to do, which is to do more with less."

A recent NBC News/Wall Street Journal poll found that 76 percent of Americans consider it unacceptable to cut Medicare, while 67 oppose cutting Medicaid, despite their deficit concerns.

Cantor also told NPR last week that it simply wasn't possible for America's most beloved entitlement programs to survive.

"We're going to have to come to grips with the fact that these programs cannot exist if we want America to be what we want America to be," he said.

"Eric Cantor's statement underscores that, now, [Republicans] are willing to turn on seniors by taking away the very bedrock of their financial and health security," Rep. Jan Schakowsky's (D-IL) said during at Thursday conference call.

"With all due respect, what the Congresswoman is saying is simply untrue -- Eric has made clear for months that he is committed to ensuring the long-term viability of these programs by addressing their solvency issues now," Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring told Raw Story.

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House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-WI) said Sunday that the GOP 2012 budget will exceed even the $4 trillion in spending cuts over the next decade recommended by President Barack Obama's debt commission.

But Ryan wouldn't commit that his new budget would follow the debt commission's lead and cut corporate welfare for oil and gas companies.

"Widely reported that your budget will cut spending by $2 trillion over the next decade. True?" Fox News Chris Wallace asked Ryan during their Sunday interview.

"Well, it's more than that," Ryan said. "Quite a bit more than that."

"$4 trillion?" Wallace wondered.

"Looking at more than that right now. We're fine-tuning the numbers. Congressional Budget Office literally today, over the weekend. We'll cut more than that," Ryan explained.

"We will be exceeding the goals that were put out in the president's debt commission," he added.

"You talk about the president's debt commission. They got $1 trillion from closing a lot of tax loopholes, ending a lot of tax deductions. Do you do that?" Wallace asked.

"Not only do we want to cut spending, not only do we want to reform government spending, we want economic growth. We want job creation. Pro-growth tax reform is a key ingredient to getting this economy working again, getting the economy growing again. The way to do that -- and we agree with the direction of the fiscal commission -- lower tax rate and broaden the tax base. And those are the things we'll be proposing."

"Democrats are already saying, even before they've seen your budget, you do all this balancing of the budget on the spending side and unlike the president's debt commission, you don't do it on the revenue side," Wallace noted. "Do you eliminate tax breaks and bring in new revenue by eliminating tax breaks for oil companies, for instance?"

"We don't have a tax problem," Ryan declared. "The problem with our deficit is not because Americans are taxed too little... and so we're not going to go down the path of raising taxes on people and raising taxes on the economy."

"Does it mean you won't eliminate tax breaks for big oil and gas?" Wallace pressed.

"Those are the kinds of details that you'll come out later with, that the Ways and Means Committee will work on. We don't go into the detail of which tax expenditure goes or stays. We're going to lower tax rates and broaden base. You'll see more details Tuesday."

"We are giving [Democrats] a political weapon to go against us," Ryan later admitted. "But they will have to lie and demagogue to make that a political weapon."

ADDENDUM: (Nicole) Of course, it's so typically Republican to put the burden of their years of reckless spending on the backs of seniors and protect oil companies. The DCCC put out a fact sheet on Ryan's draconian plans:

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