Thoughts political — Ryan Becomes Speaker

Paul Ryan becomes speaker. Talk about jumping through hoops to accomplish something. He did get the right wingers to knuckle under or at least look the other way on their ideological differences. The kicker in all of this was passing a raising of the debt ceiling and budget which must have caused the conservatives to wet their pants in anger.

Then there is this from Ryan:

“We fight over tactics because we don’t have a vision,” Ryan (R-Wis.) said on “Fox News Sunday” in the first of five interviews that were broadcast on morning news programs. “We’ve been too timid on policy; we’ve been too timid on vision — we have none.”

The only ideas the Republican party has had since Obama became president is to oppose anything and every thing that he is for. The Republicans have no ideas. Remember once they took control of the House they were going to concentrate on jobs. Not sure when that happened. Maybe when the Benghazi hearings were in recess. All talk no action.

Back to the debt ceiling, only good thing about Boehner going was he got this done. And both were passed for a reasonable amount of time. So now at least for now these two issues can’t be used as political footballs by the right. But I’m sure they will fine other issues to whine and throw tantrums on.

Speaking of which.

On immigration there was this gem from Ryan:

“Specifically on this issue, you cannot trust this president,” Ryan said on CNN, making reference to Obama’s executive orders last year granting some illegal immigrants a path to legal status: “This president tried to write the law himself. . . . Presidents don’t write laws; Congress writes laws.”

The White House hit back on this as they should:

The White House on Monday accused new House Speaker Paul Ryan of “pandering to the extreme right wing” of his party on immigration.

White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Ryan’s recent comments on an immigration overhaul are “preposterous” and disappointing.

Earnest called the remark “ironic.” He said it’s Ryan who supported an immigration deal, then failed to push for it to come up for a vote in the House.

The real reason he won’t take up immigration reform is that the 40 or so 4 year olds that make up the freedom caucus would have a kicking and screaming fit. Threaten to shut down the government and then threaten Ryan himself. And Ryan’s speakership would be over before it even started. It shows just how weak Ryan’s position as speaker is. It is also an interesting take because this kicking the can on immigration reform down the road works for the House. But will likely be a millstone around the neck of the Republican nominee for president.

One last thought on Ryan. I’m tired of the media putting him out as some deep thinker. That he thinks about issues and comes up with new ideas on how to solve problems from a conservative perspective. His ideas are not new at all. Move most programs to the states because they’ll know best how to solve the problem. Vouchers for all sorts of things: schools, health insurance. And finally huge tax cuts for the rich. In other words his solutions are the same supply side ideas of let the rich get richer and screw everyone else that have been the bedrock of Republican ideas for the past 40 years.

His new ideas are anything but new. They just are coming out of a pretty face this time.