The Republican Party's golden boy and great white hope, Paul Ryan, master of the meaningless mission statement, is bringing his gang back together this week following a three-week spring break. Hey, they have to work sometime—but that doesn't mean they are going to actually achieve anything when they do manage to show up.
Congress is supposed to pass a budget by April 15 under the Congressional Budget Act in order to begin the annual spending process. But House members will return into session Tuesday night after a nearly three-week recess without any plan ahead for passing a budget, let alone before the Friday deadline.
The House and Senate could still pass a budget after April 15 if they can reach an agreement. But neither of the two sides—conservatives who want lower spending levels versus lawmakers who want to adhere to last year’s bipartisan deal—are budging.
No one is going to budge. The Senate has already agreed with the majority of House Republicans—including most of the chairs of the various committees who are writing up spending bills for the departments they oversee—that the only budget cap they'll agree to is one that meets last year's deal. The various chairs are getting ready to pass their funding bills, and they and the Appropriations Committee are using last year's agreement.
It's just the Freedom Caucus maniacs holding out, as usual. And of course, Ryan isn't telling them to go take a flying leap, because Ryan doesn't want to alienate the hard-core Republican base that thinks what the maniacs are doing is how government should be. Because Paul Ryan wants to run for president at some point, and because the establishment GOP thinks that's a peachy idea. Just like they did with Marco Rubio. For Ryan, four years of of this kind of "leadership" is likely to make him fare about as well as Rubio did.