Telling CNBC’s “Squawk Box” host Joe Kernen that voters are fed up with President Barack Obama’s failed economic policies, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) showed his clever propaganda skills, knowing the 2016 voter backlash is against zealot conservatives like him. House Budget Committee Chairman Ryan authored several Tea Party-approved budgets which eviscerated the government’s social safety net, culminating in the Oct. 1, 2013 to Oct. 16, 2013 government shutdown, tossing 800,000 federal workers out of work. Ryan’s right wing zealotry earned him high marks from fiscal conservatives, hoping to turn back the clock on government’s popular entitlement programs. Ryan almost single-handedly engineered the Jan. 1, 2013 government sequester, that stripped the Pentagon of the necessary funds to maintain the armed services and U.S. national security.
Ryan and other Tea Party conservatives like to blame the Pentagon’s budget problems on Obama. “You have conservatives, like myself, . . . who are very upset about the direction of the country,” Ryan told Kernan. “You have people in America panicked because they have economic anxiety,” said Ryan, saying nothing about the economic mess under former President George W. Bush during the Great Recession of 2007-08 when U.S. banks ran out of cash. Ryan wanted to let the banking and brokerage sectors go bust when Bush-43 and his Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson had the good sense ask for Federal Reserve bailouts totaling $800 billion. Ryan says nothing about life under Bush-43, only ripping Obama for adding 12 million jobs since April 2010. Ryan says nothing about what happened to former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney’s in 2012 when he picked him as his VP.
Ryan’s the Tea Party’s most reliable poster-boy for slashing budgets, especially when it comes to the people’s needs. “There’s nothing we can do about what’s going on in the presidential election and what the outcome of that in Congress,” said Ryan promising to carry out his Tea Party agenda no matter who becomes president. Ryan says he’s concerned about what’s going on in 2016, mainly because real estate mogul Donald Trump has turned the Republican Party on its head. After going after Fox News President Roger Ailes and the Fox News crowd, Ryan’s well-aware that Trump isn’t likely to advace the GOP’s right wing agenda. Battling in Nevada today and heading to Super Tuesday March 1, the GOP’s rapidly loses hope that a Tea Party conservative will make into to the White House in 2016. GOP Party officials still haven’t accepted Trump’s likely nomination.
Telling CNBC that voters are fed up with Obama’s economic policies has little to do with Trump’s growing national appeal. Voters in the early primary states, both Democrat and Republicans, have expressed dissatisfaction with Washington’s bitter partisan divide, preventing Congress from getting anything done. Since joining the House in 1999, Ryan watched Congress become an uncivil place for Republicans and Democrats. By the time Bush-43 ended his term Jan. 20, 2009 handing the baton to Obama, the country had high hopes things would change. Barack quickly pursued his health care agenda, signing Obamacare into law March 23, 2009 without one Republican vote, making the partisan atmosphere more toxic. When Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) slammed the door on Barack’s replacement for Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, it showed the partisan gulf.
Since joining the House in 1999, Ryan’s grown up on bitter partisan politics. If wars in Afghanistan and Iraq weren’t enough, Ryan watched federal budgets bleed red ink largely from excessive war spending, creating whopping federal budget deficits during the Bush-43 years. Ryan’s approach as House Budget Committee Chairman was to slash federal spending, both military and entitlements. After serving Congress with the lowest approval ratings in modern history, Ryan knows the public’s frustration with Congress, especially the toxic partisan atmosphere. Saying voters are disgusted with Obama’s economics completely ignores the bitter political atmosphere giving rise to Trump’s candidacy. While Ryan’s concerned about the 2016 election, he accepts no responsibility for poisoning Washington political well, leaving voters no choice but to seek dramatic change.
Ryan can’t blame 2016 voters for backing a candidate like Trump who offers Washington a way out of is current dysfunction. Trump rises above the political fray, offering to “make American great again,” not by siding with the GOP but by taking on the Party establishment and media elites. Many of his criticisms focus on the incompetence on both sides of the aisle. Voters in 2016 want something different, something new and untested. “We can make this and ideas contest and no a personality contest . . . and show where we, Republicans, can go in 2017 if you give us a president we can work with,” said Ryan, hinting strongly that he’ll oppose a Trump if he doesn’t follow the Tea Party agenda. When Nevada speaks tonight, Trump’s nomination should look all but locked up, signaling to Ryan and the GOP Party establishment it’s time to back Trump.
