Mitt Romney doesn’t want to own the Paul Ryan budget. I think it’s a little late for that.

Shortly after Romney announced that Ryan would be his running mate, his campaign put out the word that, by embracing Ryan, Romney wasn’t also embracing his controversial budget. Here’s an excerpt from the official campaign talking points, obtained by CNN from “a Republican source”:

Gov. Romney applauds Paul Ryan for going in the right direction with his budget, and as president he will be putting together his own plan for cutting the deficit and putting the budget on a path to balance.

Smarter analysts were quick to point out that Romney had praised Ryan’s budget in clear, strong terms during the campaign for the Republican nomination. In March, for example, Romney said “I’m very supportive of the Ryan budget plan” and, later, “I think it'd be marvelous if the Senate were to pick up Paul Ryan’s budget and to adopt it and pass it along to the president.”

True, Romney never endorsed the details of Ryan’s budget. But Romney never endorses the details of anything. And it’s not really the details of Ryan’s budget that matter. It’s the broad brushstrokes—the decision to place a tight cap on overall federal spending, to end the federal guarantees of Medicare and Medicaid, to dramatically reduce funding on programs for low-income people, and to give large tax breaks to the wealthy.

Romney has endorsed all of those things—and not just by implication. He’s called for turning Medicare into a voucher system, although he’d theoretically preserve the government-run plan for people who want it. He’s said he would turn Medicaid into a block grant. And he’s called for a tax cut that, according to the non-partisan Tax Policy Center, would raise taxes on the middle class even as it reduces taxes on the wealthy—at least if Romney is serious about making his tax plan revenue-neutral.