Speaker Ryan Failing to Pass a Budget is a 'Major Embarrassment'
Paul Ryan is not running for president or passing a budget
House Speaker Paul Ryan...[is]...about to blow through a statutory deadline to pass an annual budget, a major embarrassment for him and House Republicans.
Under the government's arcane budget law, the House is supposed to produce a budget by this Friday, April 15...
Ryan's own inability to deliver now that he's speaker raises questions about his stewardship of the House, and whether his repeated promises to return power to rank-and-file lawmakers can produce results, given how unwilling some of them are to compromise. And amid an angry GOP presidential campaign that's exposed deep divisions in the party, Ryan's honeymoon in the House may be coming to an end if he's unable to bridge the same divide between hard-core conservatives and more pragmatic-minded lawmakers that defeated his predecessor.
"There was a lot of excitement last fall when newly elected Speaker Ryan was talking about 2016 being a year of policy and passing a robust policy agenda," said Dan Holler, spokesman at Heritage Action for America. "It's been pretty underwhelming."
The budget is not the only area where House Republicans are faltering under Ryan's leadership. Very little significant legislation has been moving, and negotiations over a bill to address Puerto Rico's fiscal crisis have proceeded in fits and starts, an area where Boehner's ability to cut deals with Democrats might have come in handy. It's unclear whether a just-released Puerto Rico bill backed by Ryan will attract the needed support.
…
On the budget, Boehner confronted a comparable situation in 2014 to where Ryan is now. It was the second year of a budget deal with Obama — negotiated by Ryan — and some conservatives were reluctant to go along with higher agency budget levels. Boehner was working with a smaller GOP majority but had an advantage since conservatives were relatively sheepish after the 2013 government shutdown that they sparked.
Now, in a hyper-polarized presidential election year — and after toppling Boehner last year — conservatives aren't falling into line.
The GOP's budget fail
Republicans said they'd make the budget a top priority when they took power — but now some of them want to abandon the process altogether.
Not long ago, Congressional Republicans said authoring and passing a budget were the basics of governing…And they convinced voters to return them to power because they would make Capitol Hill work again.
But here we are, on April 13, with Republicans holding both chambers of Congress, and there isn't a budget in sight.
In fact, they won't just miss the mid-April deadline by a day or two. There's a better-than-even chance that the House and Senate will never pass a budget together, and there's an even better chance that neither chamber will pass a budget before the election.
The reality lays bare a few critical dynamics. Republicans have undermined one of their core arguments for governing. On key fiscal matters, they have not been able to normalize legislating and hopes for regular order have been dashed…
…it's also clear that the House cannot find a majority for the budget, and the Senate sees no reason to take a risk without cooperation from the House…House Majority Whip Steve Scalise's (R-La.) operation spent time over the recess surveying the landscape, and made minimal progress…
…Republicans are now saying that the budget process is unnecessary.
Several other Republicans said the party is focusing on how to make the budget have more teeth. One suggestion that would build on the GOP's "No Budget, No Pay" act of the past: A proposal that would withhold lawmakers' pay if the budgets don't balance.
…House Republican leaders seem unable to win passage of a budget resolution because of opposition from hard-line conservatives.
The inability to pass a budget is a setback for Speaker Paul D. Ryan of Wisconsin, who built his political reputation as his party's leading author of budget proposals.
House GOP likely to miss budget deadline
House Republicans are expected to blow past a key budget deadline this week after party leaders failed to resolve a months-long fight over spending levels.
When asked if the House would vote on a resolution this week, House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers told The Hill on Tuesday evening: "I don't think so."
Paul Ryan Faces Fiscal Failure as the House Blows the Budget Deadline
…House Republicans are going to blow the deadline to pass a budget.
Failure by a GOP-controlled Congress to pass one would be a major embarrassment for Speaker Paul Ryan (WI) and his leadership team.
Ryan has repeatedly called for a return to "regular order" that begins with the passage of a budget before taking up any spending bills on the floor.
A failure would also signal even tougher intraparty fights in the months ahead…
Paul Ryan wants you to know he's not in the running to be president, and it's not like when the Speaker of the House assured the public he wasn't in the running to be Speaker of the House.
In fairness, his current job, that he didn't want, isn't going that great.
As Speaker, the numbers wonk has failed to unite the conservative wing of his party. Take this year's budget battle, which Ryan seems to have lost.
When he was elected speaker, he vowed to use his new perch atop the House to show the American people that conservatives can govern by passing a spending blueprint by Tax Day.
That deadline is just days away. And the tea party wing of the House revolted - as they are known to do - and it seems the lower chamber will fail to even pass a budget.
Thus instead holding a press conference showing a united Republican Party, budget in hand, he was forced to insert himself into presidential politics and beg convention delegates to stay in line and stop loving him so much.
Instead of coming together with Democrats to pass a budget resolution that will create jobs and grow the paychecks of hard-working American families, Republicans have decided not to pass a budget at all. But as Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi said today:
"…it's important to know that as disastrous as the Ryan Budget is, it's not bad enough, cruel enough, brutal enough for some in his Party who want to even go further – and that's why they have trouble getting the votes. "