Did Paul Ryan just de facto endorse Mitt Romney?

At Business Insider, Jaewon Choe believes so:

“He got two big wins just the other day,” he said. “He definitely has the wind behind his back going into Super Tuesday. If he does really well on Super Tuesday, then to me it looks like he is well on his way to getting the nomination.”

But what might help Romney even more is Ryan’s glowing review of the former Massachusetts governor’s economic plan. Ryan serves as the chair of the House Budget Committee and is well respected among conservatives for his economic approach. Remember the Ryan Plan from the debt ceiling debates last summer? That’s him.

He called Romney’s tax plan “very credible” and defended his tax proposal from recent criticism made by the Tax Policy Center that it would add more than $3 trillion to the federal deficit.

“I don’t think that’s the case,” he said. “I don’t think they’re taking into consideration… getting rid of the the tax shelters and loopholes that can make this a revenue neutral plan.”

Meanwhile, Ryan was a little more timid when talking about Rick Santorum’s zero tax on manufacturers proposal.

“It’s not from my playbook,” he said. “I think we should have lower rates for everybody. Broader-based, stop picking winners and losers, stop doing special preferences and treatments. We want to get to 25%. We just want good, pro-growth, fair, flatter tax reform that makes a difference.”