Should a guy who’s trying to jam a bill through in 36 hours really be scolding people for insufficient diligence?

Ryan reacted in an animated fashion when asked about Rubio saying the deal would make it harder for people to achieve the American Dream. Ryan looked off-camera briefly and then suggested that Rubio should “read the deal.” “Read the deal and get back to me,” Ryan said. “People are going to do what they need to do. Look, in the (Republican Senate) minority, you don’t have the burden of governing.” Ryan was then asked again about Rubio coming out in opposition shortly after it was announced. “I thought it was a little strange. … It is what it is.”

What deep nuances would Rubio have gained from poring through the text that weren’t already clear from the details that leaked beforehand? (Actually, here’s one.) Normally I’d pat Ryan on the back for being a stickler for detail among his critics — but not when the whole point of the bill from the GOP side, let’s face it, is simply to prevent another shutdown. The details of whether the $20 billion in chump change we’ll save will be front-loaded or back-loaded over the next 10 years are almost incidental. If Ryan wants to knock tea partiers, the better critique is simply to say, “I don’t like it either but it’s the best we can do when liberals have a chokehold on government. Let’s take back the Senate and do a real deal then.” Instead he’s acting like the criticism is unwarranted.

And it is warranted.

[T]his wasn’t a particularly ridiculous criticism for Rubio to make. He condemned the deal shortly after the details of it (but not the entire text) were released. Those details confirmed that it would make no sacrifices on taxes or long-term entitlement spending, the sort of choices that S&P asked Congress to make when it issued the 2011 debt downgrade. If your goal from 2011 on was to force a Democratic president to start cutting into entitlements, you knew immediately that this wasn’t the deal you wanted.

Right. It’s unrealistic of Rubio to expect a deal like that with Obama and Harry Reid calling the plays, but he didn’t need a Talmudic reading of Ryan’s bill to know that it wasn’t going to deliver. It’s another small sign of how fed up the GOP leadership is with being called sellouts by tea partiers that Ryan would get this defensive about a deal that he knows full well is anemic. I think.

And now, because I’m a hack and some jokes are too easy, video of Ryan confronting Rubio about this.