Comments on: Paul Ryan explains

By: Matt_SE

Matt_SE — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 02:48:09 +0000

@fiona

This is one of the main problems I’ve noticed recently: there’s no deterrent factor to losing your elected office. The politicians simply move over to K street to start their new careers.
So whenever you hear citizens imagining that they’re threatening politicians with losing their jobs, realize that the politicians are thinking “so what?”

By: fiona

fiona — Mon, 28 Dec 2015 02:09:17 +0000

No one was listening early on in the Speaker’s battle when Ryan announced that he would be looking for a lucrative lobbying job (like Cantor) in the near future. Now that he has delivered the goods, he should have no problem finding it. Too bad that working for your country and its people is so frustrating, boring and poorly compensated. The folks organizing a primary for Ryan may be wasting their efforts. Regular order is not that difficult to arrange and an Omnibus bill is never preferable to a number of specific funding bills. Also the Senate is a bigger problem than the House, but maybe not forever – there are far more R seats up for grabs in 2016 and McConnell chances of remaining in charge are growing smaller every day. I”m sure he will breathe a sigh of relief when he can turn things back to Harry Reid next January.

By: Frog

Frog — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 22:41:17 +0000

The 2011-2012 chatter that Ryan was a “policy wonk” made me very nervous. His wonkishness, as in his budget plan, merely slowed the monstrous growth of the federal deficit compared to Democratic desires. Remember how it was praised by the GOP?

So he proposed to reduce the slope of the Federal deficit growth curve with his “plan” is all. So much for a solution.

And we are now surprised with the Omnibus Bill? He gave us a 3 year+ Heads Up alert.

By: Matt_SE

Matt_SE — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 17:45:55 +0000

@parker

At this point, the best thing that could happen to the country is to default on our debt. We’d never be able to run a deficit again. Just think of how many corrupt statist schemes that would overturn!

By: ErisGuy

ErisGuy — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 12:37:14 +0000

Should anyone ask me to vote for a Republican agenda, I will refute them with Paul Ryan.

By: M J R

M J R — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 05:25:55 +0000

Yes: bla bla bla. And a little more bla to go with the bla.
Okay.
I will be listening when the time comes, but for me, Paul Ryan is now guilty until proven innocent.
(Such a *nice* young man, ‘e was.)

By: parker

parker — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 04:30:09 +0000

Ryan was not too long ago portrayed as the budget wonk, the one capable of crafting a long term plan to actually begin reducing the debt burden. At the time, I called his ‘plan’ smoke and mirrors. I was criticized for my opinion by several regular commenters at this blog. Now Ryan is revealed.

The ‘government shut down’ that makes the gope tremble with fear is pure BS. The feds never shut down. Bond payments are made (with the sale of new bonds), the social welfare checks continue to flow, and no essential obligations suddenly come to an abrupt halt. As we saw the last time, all that happens is federal agents shoo tourists away from monuments and parks, and employees of the alphabet soup agencies go on paid leave.

I for one, hope Ryan faces a serious primary challenge come 2016.

By: geokstr

geokstr — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 03:27:44 +0000

I don’t see what stopped Ryan from pushing an alternative to this crap sandwich with the left’s wet dream list. He could have tried to pass a 30-60 day continuing resolution to avoid the limited shutdown the GOP leadership fears like the plague.

(Have you ever heard Mark Levin go off on this irrational fear? He recites the many, many times the government has been through these shutdown in the last few decades and how little, if anything, they cost the Republicans.)

Then they could have taken some time to at least strip some of the more egregious giveaways from the bill. Instead, he now has Schumer, Pelosi and Obama laughing in his face and humiliating him in public about how they took him to the cleaners. He’s pretty much lost credibility with the entire conservative base now, and exposed the phony “Freedom Caucus” as the poseurs they really are.

By: Matt_SE

Matt_SE — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 01:30:49 +0000

Ryan claiming that he was locked into this deal strikes me the same way as Obama claiming he was forced to pull out of Iraq because of GWB.
Utter horseshit. Leaders aren’t beholden to the previous regime.

By: Matt_SE

Matt_SE — Sun, 27 Dec 2015 01:27:43 +0000

@Ann

Forbes was sold to Asian investors several years ago. It went downhill quickly after that, and I haven’t read it since. It used to be one of my favorite online magazines.
Their opinion carries zero weight with me now.