Ryan Touted The Military Cuts He Claims He Didn’t Vote For

Nate Niemann/guest blogger for Think Progress

During an appearance on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, Paul Ryan denied voting for military spending cuts, telling host Norah O’Donnell that he only supported the sequestration measures included in the Budget Control Act. The 2011 law provides for across-the-board automatic cuts to the federal budget amounting to $1.2 trillion, including an estimated $492 billion from military spending. The reductions will go into effect on January 2 if Congress does not offset them.

On CBS, Ryan blamed the Obama administration for including $487 billion in cuts, but in August of 2011, while selling the law to conservatives, Ryan highlighted the very military savings he’s now trying to distance himself from:

SEAN HANNITY (FOX NEWS, HOST): Alright. How much are we getting the first year and how much are we getting the second year? How much is in defense? And how do we hold future congresses accountable to what you’re doing today?

RYAN: Right, right, that’s a good question. So, $21 billion right away for the first fiscal year. Then it’s about $46, I think, that’s off the top of my head, for the second fiscal year. How much out of defense in the first fiscal year will be $9 billion from what we call the security accounts. That’s not just defense. That’s all security. The Homeland Security, National Security. And then $2 billion to $4 billion the next year. So, the cuts on defense are — were minimized quite a bit by the most recent agreement John Boehner reached.

More than 200 House Republicans voted for the BCA and Ryan praised it profusely, saying that the law “represents a victory for those committed to controlling government spending and growing our economy.”