New York Times (Editorial)
October 22, 2015
The
conservative extremists of the Freedom Caucus showed their power when
they drove Speaker John Boehner into retirement because they deemed him
insufficiently dedicated
to gutting government and willing to compromise on, say, avoiding a
government shutdown. Whether their support now for Representative Paul
Ryan, who has been lambasted by the right-wing talk-ocracy as too soft
for the job, will improve his chances of long-term
survival if he becomes speaker is hard to say. The unity of the
fractious Republicans may not last that long.
“We
have become the problem,” Mr. Ryan said this week amid the chaos
created by the mere 40 or so hard-liners now running the show in a house
of 247 Republicans and 188
Democrats. “I want us to become the solution.” Small wonder that Mr.
Ryan’s primary demand for taking the job is a change in the rule that
allows representatives to oust the speaker, a threat that was
effectively used against Mr. Boehner.
If
Mr. Ryan wins the office, he will soon be tested by Tea Party members
who will demand his acquiescence to their hostage-taking agenda. Most
immediately, there’s a possible
federal default if Congress fails to renew the government’s borrowing
authority by Nov. 3, then a December budget deadline for averting a
government shutdown.
Mischief
and questions abound. Will the Freedom Caucus yield to Mr. Ryan at
critical moments of national consequence? Will he hand back the gavel if
they don’t? If rebuffed
by Republican zealots, would he dare to attempt compromise with
Democrats on such major popular issues as immigration reform?
As
a supposed congressional budget expert, Mr. Ryan has been a true
conservative hard-liner. His ascension promises no great relief to
citizens hoping for sparks of compromise
in Washington. His assorted budget blueprints have been more demagogic
than helpful for rational government.
In
slashing federal spending and revenues, he would crimp Medicare into a
voucher system, undermine Social Security with privatization, and
abolish the corporate income,
estate, and alternative minimum taxes. He proposed cutting $5 trillion
in spending over a decade, severely harming Medicaid and food stamps
while fattening the Pentagon budget. Oh yes, he would kill the
Affordable Care Act that is now helping 16 million Americans.
On
that record, Mr. Ryan could very well be the speaker that the Freedom
Caucus, but not the nation, deserves. He showed real cunning in stating
his conditions for agreeing
to accept the office, but he will have to be even more crafty to
survive their demands and ultimatums. It will be interesting to see if
he can look beyond appeasing that caucus and focusing on the poisonous
politics of House Republicans to finding solutions
for the nation’s neglected problems.
“We
need to move from being an opposition party to a proposition party,” he
said optimistically. So far, the House Republicans have only managed to
be the party of destruction.
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