SOME REPUBLICANS ARE HAVING PRESCHOOLER TANTRUMS

…Raul Labrador (R-ID), a Freedom Caucus leader elected in 2011

 

 

The "Freedom Caucus"could bring down the whole Republican party.

 

There is one thing that can be said about the Republican Party in their efforts to go forward.

 

If they seriously want to risk losing their majorities in the House and the Senate and then have no chance on getting the White House, all they need is to bring on a new House Speaker that is unable to control their bomb-throwing conservative purists.

 

In other words, if they get themselves another version of John Boehner, or worse, the Republican party can kiss their control of congress good-bye and they will have no chance at getting back into the White House.

 

But could the answer to this problem be the current Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, Mr. Paul Ryan (R-WI)?

 

The answer is probably “yes”, but that’s definitely not guaranteed.

 

The real point is, should Paul Ryan even take the job? 

 

Ryan is a key young Republican that could be a very promising future presidential candidate.  Taking on the House Speaker role could easily torpedo that future, especially if all were to continue as things are going today.  And some of the conservative extremists in the party are already saying that Ryan is not the right choice.

 

Ryan has already said he doesn’t want the job and the right-wing radio pundits are warning the party to stay away from Ryan.

 

As an example, after Kevin McCarthy pulled out of replacing John Boehner, RedState.com’s Erick Erickson immediately went on the air making the following statement: “Paul Ryan is a dangerous pick for conservatives,” he warned.  “While in Congress, he [Ryan] 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.”

 

And the Erickson’s of the world have been all over Ryan’s efforts for preventing US economic failure.  Ryan wants to avoid government shutdowns and the breaching of the federal debt ceiling. Congressman Ryan, Erickson observed, “collaborated with Senate Democrat Sen. Patty Murray (D-WA) to raise taxes.”

 

However, Paul Ryan is considered by some, a serious and creative thinker about the country’s budgetary challenges. This is even though his idea of a proper federal budget would cut every social programs to the bone including Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid not to mention the Pentagon. But even with all this, he is considered by the House Republicans "the intellectual leader of the House, if not the whole party".

 

One clear indication of Ryan's intellect is that he has stated more than once that he doesn’t want the job as Speaker.

 

The ultra-conservative faction in the House is the reason for this because this mob within the GOP is not just conservative, they are extremists.  And they are mounting a campaign against Ryan.

 

So, what’s such a big problem with Ryan for this group of extreme fanatics?

 

All of those items that Erickson listed such as “No Child Left Behind” were signature items sponsored by guess who?  Yep, the Republican President, George W. Bush.   In addition, this president was responsible for the Part D Prescription Drug Coverage being added to Medicare.  And Ryan was the Republican in the House that supported all of Bush’s programs including the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), which was the infamous banking and Wall Street bailout package.

 

These are all areas that this new conservative mob detests.

 

The conservative Web site named “Breitbart.com” has featured an interview with NumbersUSA president Roy Beck, who described the prospect of Speaker Ryan as “terrifying,” adding, “There’s nobody in the Republican Party who could be worse than Paul Ryan. He has spent his entire adulthood ideologically connected to the open borders crowd.”

 

Ryan has also endorsed the concept of “earned legalization” for illegal immigrants and he backed fast-track trade negotiating authority for President Obama and the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

 

These new extreme conservatives hate this concept for illegals, and the trade agreement, and they are a part of 40 members of the new Freedom Caucus.  (An even more extreme spin-off of the Republican Study Committee & the Tea Party.)

 

This group demands from the next speaker commitments that include providing for a filibuster-proof repeal of Obamacare.  They require that any increase in the debt ceiling be coupled with entitlement program reform and they refuse to fund the government through temporary spending bills.  (But they have no comment on offering a long-term bill.)

 

These are all approaches to governing that Ryan would probably never support.

 

All Democrats in congress and a good number of Republicans would probably tell the Freedom Caucus to shove these demands to where the “sun don’t shine”.

 

But only Paul Ryan knows what he will finally decide?

 

As one pundit wrote and with which I agree, “Politics remains the art of the possible, not the crayoned scrawl of GOP tantrum preschoolers unable to have it entirely their way.”

 

Hear, hear!!!!

 

Copyright G.Ater  2015