Democrats tried hard to pin S&P’s U.S. credit downgrade on the Tea Party yesterday. Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., on Meet the Press, and former Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean and former White House adviser David Axelrod on Face the Nation, all pushed a “Tea Party downgrade” storyline on their respective Sunday shows. The Democrats want independents to believe that it was Republican unwillingness to compromise on taxes that led to the near government shutdown over the debt limit. But as Rep. Paul Ryan’s, R-Wis., appearance on Fox News Sunday demonstrates, that is just not true.

Host Chris Wallace asked Ryan if he would be open to revenue increases if he serves on the debt-limit-deal’s Super Congress: “If you were on that committee and you get a deal, let’s say $3 or $4 in spending cuts, in entitlement cuts, for every $1 in revenue increases, and the revenue increases came through tax reform where you lower rates but you also close the loop holes and some of the deductions and use some of that for revenue. And Speaker Boehner agreed to use 800 billion dollars of that at least temporarily, would you be open minded to including some of that revenue as part of the debt deal?”