Friday, October 9, 2015

The Tax Collector for the Welfare State


There is a cult of Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) that is as strong as any cult of personality in American politics. It’s just the people who eschew populism and conservative politics are the ones in the cult. And these people would never consider themselves part of a cult as they kneel in their prayer closets and thank God for Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) ,
Ryan is, to be sure, not a bad guy. But his cult of personality will make it problematic for conservatives should he be Speaker because everyone calls Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  a conservative and you are a loon if you think otherwise. In other words, House conservatives who might take issue with Ryan in the future will immediately be labeled as fascist totalitarians more willing to set everything on fire than work hard.
Personally, given Washington these days, I think the default should be to burn it to the ground (metaphorically speaking), but you know what I mean. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  will give the veneer of conservatism to whatever he touches.
For example, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  collaborated with Senate Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA)  to raise taxes. Republicans then ran to every media outlet to declare it was not a tax increase. It is just a “user fee” because only productive citizens who have to travel for work and families on vacation will pay it.
Likewise, Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  has been the brains behind most of the fiscal deals Rep. John Boehner (R-OH)  has cut with Barack Obama. Then there are his votes.
While in Congress, he voted for No Child Left Behind, the Prescription Drug Benefit, TARP, caps on CEO pay, the AIG bill, the GM bailout, the debt ceiling, and now the fiscal cliff. In fact,Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  is one of less than a dozen Republican congressmen to have voted for every bailout to come before Congress.
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  is a creature of Washington. He worked on Capitol Hill, worked in a think tank, then went back as a congressman. He speaks Washingtonese with the best of them.
But the editorial page of the Wall Street Journal and the “smart pundits” of the right love Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) . He is dreamy. He is also actually a competent, good guy. He has just not really been the leader out front. He’s been the draftsman for bailouts behind the scenes.
In a world of modern media, Ryan would make an attractive Speaker with a young, fresh face and a comfortable demeanor in front of the camera. But he would make it very difficult for House conservatives because to oppose Ryan is, in the minds of much of the press, to oppose conservatism itself.
That’s not true. But that storyline is already baked in.
For conservatives to confront Ryan, they’d have to make it first about Scalise and McCarthy. They’d have to point their fingers at them, not Ryan. But they would still need to fight.Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI)  has voted for every bailout, TARP, No Child Left Behind, etc. He is a team player and conservatives in Washington cannot afford to be on Team DC-GOP when the American people are mad as hell at Washington.

8 comments:

deborah said...

Informative and insightful, thanks Trooper.

ricpic said...

Ryan was just endorsed for Speaker by...wait for it...Gutierrez. Need to know more? Me neither.

edutcher said...

OK, next contestant.

PS I see Erickson's leaving RedState after Ellmers' cease and desist bitch slap.

Good for her.

Trooper York said...

I am not a fan of Erickson but he makes some valid points.

I think Paul Ryan is a good man. But he had an opportunity as the Vice Presidential Candidate to fight vociferously for conservative positions.That is the job of the VP candidate. To be the pit bull. The fighter. The tough guy. The pugilist.

How did that work out?

Trooper York said...

Ryan is a genius level bureaucrat but is he a leader? Is he the leader who will stand up and fight against the Democrats? Is he the leader who will fight the Senate to move the conservative agenda down the field?

Or is he a sober, hard working, genial Boehner?

Fr Martin Fox said...

The establishment which favors a lay-low strategy is desperate to block a confrontational conservative from getting the speaker's chair, so They are pushing Ryan. I don't know what will happen, but Jim Jordan and the Freedom Caucus should keep pressing. They get more, the more they fight.

Trooper York said...

The Rhinos are the ones who refuse to compromise. They are even threatening to make common cause with the Democrats. They would rather make a compromise with the Democrats than the conservative faction of their own party.

It is time to get a fighter in there or it is time to blow it up.

edutcher said...

Trooper York said...

I am not a fan of Erickson but he makes some valid points.

Erickson lost me in '12 when he was more interested in making sure nobody he didn't like got the Republican nomination than he was about who won in November. In a sense, pushing the Ellmers rumor tends to bear that out (and I have no idea how true it is; if true, McCarthy, if nothing else, has damned good taste in women)

YMMV

Ryan is a genius level bureaucrat but is he a leader?

Very much the point. And he was brought by Romney on to get across the reasons why entitlements need to be cut.

How well he made his point depends on whether you think the Choom Gang got in by vote fraud.