Mitt Romney Criticizes Defense Cuts That Paul Ryan Voted For

Mitt Romney criticized defense spending cuts that were part of last year's debt ceiling deal in an interview that will air Sunday on NBC's 'Meet The Press'.

"I thought it was a mistake on the part of the White House to propose [the defense cuts]. I think it was a mistake for Republicans to go along with it," Romney said.

Among the Republicans who supported the deal was Paul Ryan, the chair of the House budget committee and Romney's running mate. Paul not only voted for the cuts, he bragged about them afterwards.

"What conservatives like me have been fighting for, for years, are statutory caps on spending, legal caps in law that says government agencies cannot spend over a set amount of money," Ryan told Fox News last year, according to TPM. “And if they breach that amount across the board, sequester comes in to cut that spending, and you can’t turn that off without a super-majority vote. We got that in law.”

He also called the cuts "an important step in the right direction."

Ryan has since walked back his support of the sequester. Last month, he even criticized Obama over the cuts.

"When those budget negotiations were going on, it was the president and his party leaders who insisted on this makeup," he said. "Defense spending is not half of all federal spending, but it's half of the cuts, approximately, in the sequester. We disagreed with that then and we disagree with it now."

This isn't the first time Romney has inadvertently criticized a policy measure supported by Ryan. His campaign has aired several ads attacking Obama over Medicare cuts that seemed simliar to ones proposed in Ryan's budget plan.

As TPM's Benjy Sarlin points out, "So Romney now running against Ryan's own Medicare cuts, own debt ceiling deal -- why did he pick him again?"