Paul Ryan wants you to know he doesn't like this deal.
Congressional conservatives are not happy that outgoing House Speaker John Boehner negotiated away all their favorite hostages until 2017 in the
newly announced budget deal. They're trashing the deal in both the House and the Senate, though their opposition doesn't seem large or organized enough to derail the package.
On the Senate side, it's all Boehner's fault.
Asked about the tentative agreement after the briefing, Alabama Sen. Jeff Sessions replied: "My knees quiver at the sound."
In an interview, Sessions expressed frustration that outgoing Speaker John Boehner was hammering out the deal just days before he plans to give up the gavel for good. "What does Boehner got to do with it?" said an exasperated Sessions, the former top Republican on the Senate Budget Committee. "I'm worried about how fast it's moving. I see no reason for that. Based on what I know now, it appears the president got whatever he wanted."
It's all his fault on the
House side as well.
"I think it would be a wise idea for us to just move forward and let Ryan start negotiating this stuff," Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, told Roll Call. "I don't think it's a good idea for us to be doing this right now." […]
"To me it's business as usual for Speaker Boehner," Rep. John Fleming, R-La., another Freedom Caucus member, told Roll Call.
Added Rep. Justin Amash, R-Mich.: "We're supposed to be part of the process and if the outcome is more conservative or more liberal, so be it. But allow us to participate in the process and let the House determine the outcome through the votes."
So much for Boehner's olive branch to the Freedom Caucus in the package:
The conservatives will grumble and vote against the bill when it comes to the House floor on Wednesday, and soon after to the Senate, but they'll unlikely be able to derail it in this short time frame. Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), whose fingerprints have most definitely been left off of the agreement, will continue to trash it so he doesn't get off on the wrong foot with the nihilists, who he is still courting. That might be the biggest gift Boehner has given the whole nation—two years in which Ryan can kiss up to the crazies all he wants without the disaster of a government shutdown or debt default. Because it's pretty clear at this point that Ryan intends to let them run the show, just as Boehner has for the past five years.