Long before he became one of the right’s most vocal critics of the idea that government spending could help boost the flagging economy, Mitt Romney's choice for his Republican Presidential running mate, Representative Paul Ryan offered a forceful, full-throated defense of stimulus spending — when then-President George W. Bush wanted it in 2002.

Ryan has denounced the 2009 Recovery Act signed by President Obama as “a wasteful spending spree” and “failed neo-Keynesian experiment,” and dismissed as “sugar-high economics” the idea that government spending, through measures like payroll tax cuts and unemployment benefits, can help shore up a faltering economy.

But in 2002, when then-President Bush was seeking a roughly $120 billion package of tax cuts, tax incentives for business and unemployment benefits to jump-start the economy, Ryan offered a vigorous defense of the plan. As with many solutions proposed by President Obama (such as the Individual Health Insurance Mandate), most Republicans supported them- heck, they advocated for them- up until the day they no longer held the White House.

Watch Republican Hypocrisy, in particular that of Paul Ryan, in action as presented by Chris Hayes (after advertisement):