It took Paul Ryan less than a week to manifest the old adage that the, the more things change, the more they stay the same. The Republican modus operandi is to call things by different names and then claim that they are different. Ryan has now pronounced that there will be no immigration bill until President Obama leaves office because the congress "doesn't trust him." That is a euphemism for, "we can't get a consensus in The House...now my house...to allow people we don't like to stay in the country even when they are here because they were brought as children and are contributing to our society." Ryan is actually admitting that, despite his claim that he has wiped the slate clean, all he has done is find a way to throw a tarp over it so that the American voter can't see it. The reality is that there will never be a meaningful immigration bill that includes amnesty or citizenship for young people who are vested in our society but are not documented aliens as long as Republicans control The House and have at least 40 votes in The Senate. Saying that The President's trustworthiness is the reason is such a thin pretext that no one will believe it...except the Republican faithful (read conservatives) of course. After all, every president exercises executive power to implement the laws as he prefers in every arena from tax collection to immigration law. To say that congress won't pass a law until a president who doesn't do that is like saying that congress just won't pass any laws...which is the new status quo anyway. Ryan proposes to do things differently, but he has just made it plain that it is Republican business as usual, so what should we expect from the last year and a few months of this congress and presidency.
Well, more of the same is pretty vague, but that's basically it. Boehner was smart in that he saved his party from self-immolation over the debt limit...again. Each time the issue has raised its ugly head during his speakership, he has slipped behind the curtain and arranged a deal with Nancy Pelosi and President Obama that he could profess to abhor but accept and enough of his rational Republican buddies could do likewise so as to avoid a repeat of the 2013 government shutdown--over which Boehner had reluctantly presided on account of Ted Cruz's grandstanding-- with quite negative consequences in terms of public opinion about congress. And since congress has been Republican...The Senate since 2014 and The House since 2010, a goal that was hard to achieve but would be easy to toss away with foolishness, McBoehnell saw the forest for the trees, with or without their Republican brethren, and they got together with the Democrats and the Republicans who aren't politically suicidal and saved the Republican bacon for one last time. However, that was an anomaly possible only during Boehner's lame-duck speakership, and that is over now. So what Ryan is trying to do is keep his party from firing its foot-shooting pistol just before the nation chooses not just new congressmen and senators, but a new president as well, but Ryan can't just come out and say that. Thus, he resorts to the same tactics that his predecessor used: casuistry, eristry and prevarication. Rename things so that they can be identified as something they aren't, then blame the other guy because you stuck a name on it that you can hang around his neck. Hence, if you substitute presidential trustworthiness for internal party strife, you get a problem that the Democrats have to answer for rather than one that the Republicans have to admit that they are causing. Unfortunately, it seems to work every time they use it. At least, they seem to be able to glaze their actions in such a way that voters don't have to really look at the pot of you-know-what within and admit that it isn't really admirable at all. Here's to Paul Ryan, the undistinguished gentleman...undistinguished from his predecessor and from all the other liars in Washington.
But it isn't all bad. Under Ryan, there will be a lot more smiling in congress, and maybe, because he seems adroit when it comes to making excuses without taking blame, he will be able to prevent some of the acrimoniously self-serving shenanigans, like The House Special Committee for harassing Hillary Clinton. We may get civility out of Ryan's tenure, but now that he has agreed to be javelin catcher, his presidential aspirations are behind him...at least prospects for successful presidential aspirations are. By the time he is through, it will be obvious that he can't herd cats any better than anyone else, and when everyone is saying so, that will be his presidential death knell. As for tax reform, immigration reform, reform of congressional rules in both house and senate, all things that Ryan promised by implication during his ascendance speech, don't hold your breath.
Your friend,
Mike
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