House Speaker Paul Ryan has exhibited the urgency of a coach potato on everything from the guns that are slaughtering American students and Russia's assault on our voting systems to the rampant corruption in Donald Trump's administration and its attack on the foundational principles of our government. But on Monday, Paul Ryan came out swinging!
It’s Trump’s tariffs, folks—yikes! Yes, Ryan has a war room (who knew!) he’s mobilizing and he's even making bold statements like, “We are extremely worried about the consequences of a trade war & are urging the White House to not advance with this plan."
Extremely worried? Goodness, Paul, will you please stuff all that P90X mojo back in the tube—you're scaring us! How about something more akin to your post-Parkland massacre responses urging us to "take a breath" and not "jump" to conclusions so we could all "step back and count our blessings." What the country really needs now is the consistency of your useless reactions to catastrophic issues, like when you called out Trump's attack on immigrants from "shithole countries" as "unfortunate." Now, that's the type of anemic Ryan response we've come to cherish.
So why exactly is Paul Ryan so animated on tariffs? Politico has an answer:
Republicans plan to brag about the economy in midterm campaigns in hopes of countering Trump’s unpopularity, touting a strong stock market, low unemployment rate and — most importantly — their increasingly popular tax legislation. But Trump’s suggestion Saturday that he might slap penalties on European cars, in addition to the tariffs on aluminum and steel he already promised, could upend that strategy completely, Republicans say.
Of course! It's totally driven by self-interest. Ryan doesn't care that kids are getting gunned down in the hallways of our schools or that Russia poses an existential threat to our republic. He's worried about the job safety of GOP lawmakers, because that matters more than the lives of kids, the durability of our democracy or, frankly, anything else.