WhatFinger


Defeats Daniel Webster 200-43 to earn GOP nod

Paul Ryan will officially become Speaker today



I'm still trying to understand the issue a lot of you have with Paul Ryan, who articulates conservative economic ideas about as well as any member of Congress I've ever seen or heard. But I think it comes down to two things: You think he's an "amnesty shill" and you think he "never met a bailout he didn't like." Does that about sum it up? Perhaps a third issue is that you didn't like the budget compromise he negotiated with Patty Murray in 2013 when Democrats still ruled the Senate. And maybe a fourth issue is that Ryan doesn't seem anywhere near as angry as you are.
Anyway, like it or not, Ryan easily won the Republican nomination for House Speaker in yesterday's 200-43 caucus vote over Daniel Webster, and today he will become Speaker upon a formal vote of the entire House:
While Ryan won support from 80 percent of his GOP colleagues, there were signs Wednesday that the party’s fissures may persist. Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), who has gained a small but loyal following among hard-right lawmakers drawn to his pledges to change House rules and procedures, earned 43 votes to Ryan’s 200. Most Webster backers — many of them members of the hard-line House Freedom Caucus — indicated they will back the party nominee after Ryan spent the past week reassuring them that they will play a more prominent role in lawmaking. “The ideas that Daniel Webster’s been talking about, the House Freedom Caucus is talking about, is exactly what Paul Ryan agreed to do,” said Rep. Tim Huelskamp (R-Kan.), who said that he remained undecided going into Thursday’s vote but that there was no doubt that Ryan will prevail

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At some point over the past decade, immigration became Issue Number One for populist conservatives - far outpacing taxes, spending, regulation, national security and everything else. It also became many activists' litmus test. Anyone who suggests a solution other than immediately deporting every illegal alien, especially if that involves changing existing law in any way, is an "amnesty shill" and thus a RINO sellout. Somewhere along the line, Ryan got caught in that trap. To me it's irrelevant to his ascension to the position of House Speaker. He is not taking the job to push for an amnesty bill. He's taking it to help Republicans unite and fight more effectively on the other issues I mentioned above. The same is true of bailouts. It's easy to say in retrospect that every bailout was a terrible idea. My own view is that the Fannie and Freddie bailouts were wrong from the start, as was the bailout of General Motors and Chrysler. The TARP bailout I didn't like, but I thought it was necessary, even as I've said since 2008 that the original idea of buying up the toxic assets was the best possible approach and I did not like the way Hank Paulson changed it after the vote and just pumped cash into the banks instead. But the larger point on bailouts is that it's easy to sit there and say they should never happen when you're not the one presented with doomsday scenarios and forced to actually make a choice. I don't think Ryan chose correctly in all the situations above, but the fact that he sometimes chooses wrong doesn't mean I doubt his overall conservative instincts. And that's what matters the most anyway. If you look strictly at voting records, even John Boehner's was pretty conservative. The problem was that he was terrified of the media and came to view conservative insurgents within his own caucus as his adversaries, far more so than he viewed Obama that way. Boehner was convinced there was no way to win a battle with Obama because of the media so he went into every confrontation seeking nothing more than damage control and the avoidance of media criticism. It's not that Boehner didn't prefer the conservative outcome. He just didn't think he could get it, even with Republican majorities in the House and Senate, because Obama wouldn't deal and the media wouldn't call him out for that. Where Ryan needs to be different is in the following ways:
  • He needs to get the entire GOP caucus united, not on every single point because that's impossible, but on specific desired outcomes in given situations. He needs to be willing to think bigger than Boehner but he also needs to be straight with the Freedom Caucus about what's actually possible - both short-term and long-term. That starts with not treating the Freedom Caucus like they're his enemies. Ryan will do this much better than Boehner because he genuinely doesn't see them that way.
  • He needs to correct the media's nonsense premises rather than trying to constantly reassure them that he's not a right-wing nut job. That starts with refusing to accept that conservatives are the problem, as Boehner was far too willing to do.
  • He needs get the House united behind tactical maneuvers that make sense, and push back against the notion that every time Republicans tell Obama no about something they're trying to shut down the government. Boehner accepted that premise long ago, and Ryan needs to shred it - but he will have a hard time doing it if he can't come up with a better approach. And it has to start with not being afraid of media criticism, because there is no Republican strategy they won't attack.
Now, if this two-year budget deal Boehner negotiated really holds, it becomes a lot more difficult for any of this to matter because the nation's fiscal direction is already set for the remainder of Obama's term. This was done prior to Ryan's ascension to more or less allow Boehner to be the bad guy in negotiating a terrible deal, and I don't like that. But I think Boehner would have done it regardless of who was becoming Speaker, so I don't see it as a reason to hate on Ryan. Let's see how he can do on the three points I raised above. Of course, some of you have already made up your minds that he's Boehner 2.0 and there's no sense talking to you about anything. For me, I'm very glad Boehner's gone and I'm very hopeful Ryan will make a positive difference. If you don't want to join me in that, I'm fine without you.


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