NY-26 & Paul Ryan

Congressman Paul Ryan is from Wisconsin, so his name is not on the ballot in next week's special election in New York's 26th congressional district. (This is the seat vacated by the married congressman, whose name we have all forgotten, who got caught shirtless in a photo on a dating website.) But, Ryan's proposals to gut Medicare are all over the airwaves, as Jonathan Chait points out over at TNR.
Most alarming? The GOP is running an ad claiming that the "Democrats want to cut Medicare." I suppose "cut" is not exactly what the GOP, following Ryan, wants to do to Medicare. They want to gut it, not cut it.