The reviews from Democrats on the House GOP's budget proposal, authored by Rep. Paul Ryan, are in, and are scathing. So what are Republicans thinking? Here's an anonymous take, emailed to Atlantic reporter, Molly Ball.
GOP staffer emails: "The GOP budget is a great tool to further divide our caucus & provide fodder for Dem attack ads. Thank you Paul Ryan."
— @mollyesque via TweetDeck
Ouch.
Republican hacks aren't particularly excited about it either:
“As a campaign issue, the budget is a significant challenge for GOP candidates,” said Bob Honold, a GOP strategist and partner at Revolution Agency. “As a campaign strategy, it is so much more difficult for Republicans to communicate their responsible solutions than it is for Democrats to spook seniors with rhetoric.”
Another senior GOP strategist was far more blunt. “Didn’t they learn their lesson?” the source asked. “House Republicans are still under the mistaken impression they have to lead. It’s a presidential election year; they’re along for the ride.”
The question for most of these outside consultant types is why in the hell Ryan and his crew want to stick their necks out so far and give Democrats such a huge 1 percent versus 99 percent argument leading up to the election. Add on top of that the very real possibility that this grandstanding could lead to yet another government shutdown threat (and you know how much the public loves that!) and you can see why there are plenty of dismayed Republicans, few of whom are going out on a limb to endorse the plan.
For example, here's Speaker John Boehner who will only predict "a strong vote of support” in his party for the bill. A search for a statement from Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell turned up nothing as of this writing.
Likewise, trying to find a statement from GOP front-runner Mitt Romney is a challenge, with this tweet being the most definitive statement.
Romney statement says "I applaud" Paul Ryan's new budget, and looks forward to working w/ House GOP as president
— @GarrettNBCNews via TweetDeck
Hardly a ringing endorsement, though Romney has touted one part of the budget—the Medicare privatization scheme—as his own plan.
But Ryan should take heart. He's got one big fan, fellow bomb-thrower Newt Gringrich, who says "what Ryan is doing is courageous." Perhaps faint hope for Ryan and his fellow House Republicans, given how Gingrich's flirtation with a government shutdown worked out.
