Asked today to defend Mitt Romney's tax plan, Paul Ryan said he didn't "have the time"—but did give an overview and referred the curious to various studies, the Washington Post reports. Chris Wallace was pressing Ryan on Fox News Sunday about how Romney could reduce high-income individual tax rates by 20% and still come out revenue neutral. "You haven't given me the math," said Wallace.
Ryan laughed and said, "Well, I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all the math." But he did say the government could "lower tax rates by 20% across the board by closing loopholes and still have preferences for the middle class for things like charitable deductions, for home purchases, for health care…" He also told Wallace to check out five studies that support the plan, and blasted a Tax Policy Center study that said Romney couldn't make the 20% cut without boosting taxes on the middle class, reports the Financial Times. (More Paul Ryan stories.)