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Sunday, June 19, 2016

The Ryan Plan

In the last month or so, the Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, has been unveiling policy proposals almost each week.  These are supposed to be Republican policy moves that will change America's government, economy etc.  All of this, however, give rise to one major question:  WHY NOW???

Congress is going to adjourn soon for the political conventions.  There is unlikely to be many meaningful sessions of either the House or the Senate before the November elections.  There could be a short lame duck session after the elections.  The point is that nothing of major importance will get passed (in the absence of an emergency) until the new Congress and president take over next January.  So why is Ryan spending all this time unveiling proposals that are going nowhere?

Is this a ploy for the elections?  If so, it is rather lame.  I doubt that even a policy wonk like Ryan thinks that many votes will be swayed by a series of policy proposals that get no coverage in the media.  Voters selecting the House are more likely to be swayed by the presidential election, and Ryan seems to be doing his best to cause problems for Donald Trump, the GOP nominee.  So the proposals are likely not just an election stunt.

Is this a serious attempt at governance?  Perhaps it is, but it should have been done over a year ago when there were new Republican majorities in both chambers and a chance to actually get something helpful done.  In fairness to Ryan, he was not Speaker at the time, and the combination of John Boehner in the House and Mitch McConnell in the Senate was an amazing mix of lassitude, fear and indecisiveness.  Nothing got done although much had been promised.  So is Ryan trying to restart Congress?  I think that is the most likely explanation.

So will Ryan's plan work?  Again, that depends on November's election.  If the Senate goes back to being Democrat and Trump loses, Ryan and his party can keep a shrunken majority in the House, but it won't be able to do anything.  No proposals from Ryan will get through and all this will be just another waste of time.

The truth is that Ryan should be devoting his efforts to victory in November.

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