Well, thanks for clearing that up, Paul.

Well, thanks for clearing that up, Paul.

Via Greg Sargent , Paul Ryan actually made a little news yesterday on Fox News Sunday: He said that if it came down to a choice between a smaller tax cut that didn't increase the deficit or a bigger tax cut that did increase the deficit, the bigger tax cut—which would primarily benefit the wealthy—would win.

Asked by Chris Wallace what Mitt Romney would do if he couldn't offset the cost of cutting tax rates by eliminating deductions, Ryan said Romney's priority would be "keeping tax rates down," adding "that's more important than anything."

Ryan insisted that Wallace's scenario was purely hypothetical and that it was possible to cut taxes without cutting revenues, but when Wallace pressed him to explain how that was possible, Ryan punted, claiming that he didn't "have the time" to answer the question because "it would take me too long to go through all the math."

Of course, it's obvious to anyone with a calculator that you can't cut taxes by $5 trillion and make up for it by ending tax breaks—unless you're willing to increases taxes on the middle-class. That's why Ryan dodged Wallace's question in his answer, falling back on his classic "it gets wonky" formulation. But when he was pressed to say what Romney's priority was, he said tax cuts would be the priority. And since Mitt Romney gives the same percentage tax cut to the wealthy as he does to everyone else, it means Paul Ryan is now on record saying the Romney campaign would rather increase the deficit than give up on tax cuts for the wealthy.