Remember when Paul Ryan said he'd never asked for stimulus money even though he had? The Republican vice presidential candidate is now facing more claims of stimulus-related hypocrisy, with newly released footage showing he advocated a stimulus when George W. Bush proposed it in the early 2000s.

In fact, his reasoning could be used by the Obama campaign to justify its stimulus package.

What we're trying to accomplish today with the passage of this third stimulus package is to create jobs and help the unemployed. What we're trying to accomplish is to pass the kinds of legislation that when they've passed in the past have grown the economy and gotten people back to work.

Ryan also noted, "In recessions unemployment lags on well after a recovery has taken place," which slightly undercuts his accusation that current unemployment numbers show Obama's inability to deal with the recession.

According to Ryan, Bush's stimulus plan was a "bipartisan" solution to the failing economy.

We've got to get the engine of economic growth growing again because we now know, because of recession, we don't have the revenues that we wanted to, we don't have the revenues we need, to fix Medicare, to fix Social Security, to fix these issues. We've got to get Americans back to work. Then the surpluses come back, then the jobs come back. That is the constructive answer we're trying to accomplish here on, yes, a bipartisan basis. I urge members to drop the demagoguery and to pass this bill to help us work together to get the American people back to work and help those people who've lost their jobs.

So remind me again why Obama's stimulus is a very bad thing? Don't forget to drop the demagoguery.

[Image via AP]