Rep. Paul Ryan, leading his team to even greater heights of disapproval. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Rep. Paul Ryan, leading his team to even greater heights of disapproval. (Kevin Lamarque/Reuters)
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) remains convinced that ending Medicare is the right policy solution, politics be damned. He's got the misguided assistance of Sen. Ron Wyden (D-OR), an assist that's not likely to convince many comers from the other side of the aisle, or even less Randian Republicans in the House.
The Ryan-Wyden plan the House budget chairman is pushing has been roundly rejected by the White House and by House and Senate Democrats. It's a non-starter for them, made even more so by the fact that Mitt Romney has embraced it. Wyden's going to be in a Democratic wilderness on that one.
Yet, Ryan is undeterred.
The first test for Ryan in winning the second round with Obama is to rally the fractious Republican conference.
On the one hand, some centrists would just like to skip a Medicare debate in an election year.
“I would hope that it’s a thoughtful budget that focuses on the numbers for the next fiscal year rather than being some ‘roadmap’ for the next 10 years that invites criticism,” said centrist Rep. Steve LaTourette (R-Ohio).
Ryan's more interested in making political points than policy, so LaTourette, and any other Republican House members who'd just as soon lay low on this front will be disappointed. And Ryan isn't just aiming to take on Obama over Medicare: he's going to pick a fight over the automatic defense cuts that Congress agreed to in last August's debt ceiling deal.
One step he has already decided upon is to exclude $500 billion in defense cuts that were mandated by last summer’s debt-ceiling deal. [...]
“Using the sequester is a meat-ax approach,” a Ryan aide said. “Cuts to defense have to be made based on an assessment of threats. I think replacing the sequester is where our conference is on this.”
It’s a bit of a risk, as it could make the GOP look as if it is reneging on the August debt deal. [...]
Indeed, one worried Republican lawmaker who requested anonymity said it would look as if the GOP were changing the rules of a game they helped draw up.
It would do more than just look as if the GOP was reneging on the August deal. It would be the GOP actually reneging on the August deal. What's shocking about that is that some House Republicans are actually bothered by that idea.
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