Speaker Ryan's 'Ideas' Hitting a 'Dead-end'
What "ideas" is he talking about? Ideas like failing to pass a budget? Ideas like refusing to act for desperate families facing the public health emergencies of Zika, Opioid addiction, and Flint? Ideas like putting a fresher face on the same Do-Nothing, Special Interest Republican Congress?
Here's what the media has to say about those ideas:
…looks like [spending bills] headed straight down a dead-end street.
Failing to adopt a budget, which lays the groundwork for the year's spending and tax policy legislation, means that it will be nearly impossible for the House to vote before the fiscal year ends Sept. 30 on the detailed bills that stipulate exactly how federal agencies are funded. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers (R-Ky.) said he plans to keep writing the bills under the assumption that last year's spending agreement stands, but for now he is powerless to bring them to the floor without a budget or leadership's consent.
[Speaker Ryan] doesn't know if he can secure enough votes among his fellow Republicans to pass a 2017 budget to guide federal spending.
Months after House Republicans began talking about passing a federal budget for 2017, Speaker Paul Ryan (WI) confirmed lawmakers are still doing just that: talking.
Congress setting new bar for doing nothing
Call it the Seinfeld Congress — all about nothing. It's gotten so small-ball that one congressman, a chairman of a highly influential committee, introduced legislation last week to recognize the national significance of magic.
When it comes to more substantive bills — like helping Puerto Rico avoid default, tackling the Zika virus or finding money to help Flint fix its corroded water system — there's been hardly any movement.
The Speaker may attempt to spin his Party's internal chaos and dysfunction – and can continue to give pep talks. But as Drew Hammill, Spokesman for Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi, said:
The ‘Do-Nothing' Republican Congress is leaving town today for two weeks without taking action on a budget, and without addressing the three major public health crises of Zika, opioid addiction and the Flint water crisis. Speaker Ryan can talk all he wants, but the total failure of the Republican Congress speaks louder than anything.