House GOP Kicks Budget Can Down the Road

February 22, 2016
Blog Post
For months, Speaker Ryan has promised to restore order to the House after years of Republican dysfunction and distraction.  But even as the architect of House Republicans' regressive, anti-senior, anti-middle class budget blueprints, the Speaker is already running into budget problems from the same radicals who gave his predecessor headaches.  Now, House Republicans are ready to kick the can down the road – giving up on their pledge to hold a committee mark-up this week on a budget resolution:

CQ:

Republicans on the House Budget Committee are "postponing markup of the annual tax and spending framework until March, after earlier aiming to approve the plan on Feb. 25."

POLITICO:  

"The House Budget Committee has postponed consideration of a 2017 fiscal blueprint until March, as the panel's chairman and leadership try to craft a resolution that passes the muster of conservatives…

"House Speaker Paul Ryan has made moving a budget a top priority but has faced sharp resistance from conservatives. Ryan is asking Republicans to back a budget with discretionary spending levels agreed to last year with President Barack Obama, but loathed by the right."

As the Atlanta Journal Constitutionreports, this budget mess could spell big trouble for Speaker Ryan's vow to end the chaos of the House Republican majority.

Failing to move such a blueprint would be a political embarrassment for [Budget Committee Chairman Tom] Price and party leaders, since it would raise questions about their ability to govern and manage their members. It would be especially mortifying for new Speaker Paul Ryan, a former Budget Committee chairman, himself, who has built expectations among members of his party for completing spending bills that showcase the GOP's policy priorities.

Yet again, it's the Speaker's own broken promises – and his own rhetoric – that are coming back to bite him.  Because while the Speaker pledged an end to dysfunctional House-Republican leadership, all the American people are seeing is more of the same.