December 17, 2015

"You see what they're doing to him?"/"Making him a RINO... Ryan-O."

Dialogue at Meadhouse, as we look at Drudge this morning:



Please credit Meade with the coinage "Ryan-O."

44 comments:

as if.... said...

Nice one Meade!

Curious George said...

"Please credit Meade with the coinage "Ryan-O."

Every chance I get.

uffda said...

'Making him exposing him? I"ll cut Ryan a little slack as he is new to the position, but this will be one short honeymoon.

Laslo Spatula said...

From The Hill:

"Sessions estimates the number of H-2B visas will soar from 66,000 to 250,000 because of the language in the omnibus. He took to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to protest the maneuver."

I can think of a lot of worse things to call Ryan than 'Ryan-O'.

Bring back the Guillotine.

I am Laslo.

Rick said...

Why would he postpone the Cadillac tax? It's one of the few taxes, maybe the only one, which primarily effects a Democratic constituency. By eliminating it Ryan has removed a major source of pain from Obamacare making it more likely the entire mess remains. Plus he could easily refute the Dem desire to eliminate the tax by pointing to their own efforts to increase taxes at every opportunity plus the fact that this was their initiative in the first place.

Inexplicable.

walter said...

Ho, ho, hoes...

Gahrie said...

This deal is exactly why Trump is so damn popular.

Sebastian said...

"You see what they're doing to him?" I think he's doing it to himself. Eagerly.

damikesc said...

He is one. If you're relying on majority Democrat votes to pass a fucking terrible budget, why should ANYBODY listen to you or vote for you?

We can vote Dem and get the same things.

This deal is exactly why Trump is so damn popular.

Exactly. Trump or Cruz or I just won't vote. Fuck the Republicans.

Danno said...

I saw the Slate article last night as a RealClearPolitics link. With divided government in a 50/50 country and with Obama all too happy to veto or shut down government, what are people expecting? The product is not good but probably the best deal Ryan could do.

Etienne said...

What's with that Eddie Munster dip of hair on his forehead? Doesn't his barber talk to him?? Even it out hair boy!

Big Mike said...

I guess they're all bought and paid for, Republican politicians same as Democrats.

rehajm said...

Why would he postpone the Cadillac tax?

The Cadillac tax was scheduled to go into effect in 2018, but the system should collapse before then.

It was a concession freebie for Republicans.

garage mahal said...

Ryan looks like a jihadi with that. Or so says Breitbart commenters. Haha.

Writ Small said...

I would probably be more put off by this deal if any tea-party house members had stepped up to take the leadership position.

They scurried away when faced with actual responsibility and are now free to say *they* could have done it better than Ryan just like they could have done it better than Boehner.

This really is the Boehner deal with a few tweaks. Let's see what Ryan can do when he's got proper time to craft his own budget.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Ryan-No

This could help him in the general election, but might make it more difficult for the convention to nominate him. And it's hard enough already, what with him being the chairman of the convention. But he can still get the nomination, as long as the only opponents are Trump and Cruz.

This will not be a "brokered" convention, with the nominee selected after the primary season, but before the convention meets. It will be a deadlocked convention, going into multiple ballots, until several of the presidential candidates endorse someone else.

MadisonMan said...

I would like Paul Ryan to shave.

(But Coupe -- I like the Widow's Peak -- is that what those things are called?)

Sammy Finkelman said...

Rick said...12/17/15, 8:56 AM

Why would he postpone the Cadillac tax? It's one of the few taxes, maybe the only one, which primarily effects a Democratic constituency....

But it's also a pain for Republicans.

Inexplicable.

It also has not been abolished, but postponed, so the need to get rid of it remains. (actually one form of legislative dysfunction is to leave must-pass legislation, unpassed, so that if Congress does nothing, atrain wreck of some sort awaits. So you criticize not abolishing it outright.)

This probably reflects Ryan's support of bipartidanship - getting what you can - and regular order.

By eliminating it Ryan has removed a major source of pain from Obamacare making it more likely the entire mess remains.

Not too likely, because it Obamacare has an unsound business plan, that will become unworkable in 2017 and 2018.

They did bail out the big insurance companies, but not Obamacare, by giving insurance companies a different tax break, but not rendering them harmless from mispriced Obamacare exchange policies. This can benefit insurance companies but harms or destroys anything that tries to have only health care exchange business.

Ryan also thinks - he may be mistaken - that the tax code was changed in such a way so as to make a tax reform bill more likely. Except he knows President Obama is very unlikely to sign one in 2016, but he's hoping one at least can pass the House and the senate, giving the Republican candidate a platform to run on.


theribbonguy said...

Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.

It really is a puzzler how Trump is capturing the conservative vote.

Original Mike said...

"This really is the Boehner deal with a few tweaks. Let's see what Ryan can do when he's got proper time to craft his own budget."

I believe he has promised no omnibus budget next year. I'll be disappointed if he doesn't follow through.

Rick said...

Sammy Finkelman said...

But it's also a pain for Republicans.


How?

Not too likely, because it Obamacare has an unsound business plan, that will become unworkable in 2017 and 2018.

It's wasteful. But if the government forces people to pay the waste the plan doesn't go away. The only way we get rid of Obamacare is with bipartisan support - and Ryan just eliminated the prime source of Democratic opposition.

It also has not been abolished, but postponed, so the need to get rid of it remains.

Once it's here long enough the pain becomes indistinguishable from the general pain of higher taxes and costs of living. At that point Dem resolution moves from eliminating Obamacare to shifting the tax burden onto other people - which is exactly what Ryan has done in advance. He's created the worst possible circumstances now. If he tries to change those circumstances the Dem argument is enhanced because they're essentially arguing for the status quo.

Brando said...

"Why would he postpone the Cadillac tax? It's one of the few taxes, maybe the only one, which primarily effects a Democratic constituency. By eliminating it Ryan has removed a major source of pain from Obamacare making it more likely the entire mess remains. Plus he could easily refute the Dem desire to eliminate the tax by pointing to their own efforts to increase taxes at every opportunity plus the fact that this was their initiative in the first place."

On the other side of the coin, postponing it means cutting off a source of revenue for Obamacare (I don't think they get funds for the ACA subsidies from general funds, but need to get it from these sort of revenue streams). But I agree that they may as well let people feel the pain from this law in order to bring about its demise sooner.

More important I think is the absence of funding for the insurance companies' risk corridors. Stopping subsidizing the insurers may get more of them to drop out of the scheme sooner.

Sammy Finkelman said...

Laslo Spatula said...12/17/15, 8:52 AM

From The Hill:

"Sessions estimates the number of H-2B visas will soar from 66,000 to 250,000 because of the language in the omnibus. He took to the Senate floor Wednesday afternoon to protest the maneuver."

This is actually something many Republicans want, and Democrats are not too interested in, and even opposed to.

The H2-B system, as currently instituted is, in the phrase used by some people, broken. It qualifies certain people for such visas but sets a quota far less than the number of people who qualify. The result is, it becomes a game and a lottery
(with employers havig to carefully time their applications, and applications accepted after winning a lottery) and it's not doing what it is supposedly doing.
It's actually a ridiculous system.

The 33,000 cap for employment beginning in the first half of the fiscal year 2015(October 1 - March 31) was reached on January 26, 2015, meaning employers with H-2B needs after January 26, 2015 wanting to start before April 1 were out of luck. The cap for April 1- September 30 was reached on March 26, 2015.

The programs rules require the application be made at least 45 days but no more than 6 months before employment is to begin. There are some exemptions from the cap, particularly for current or previous workers.

The new law actually does not change the cap of 66,000 visas, but excludes from the cap any worker who has already received an H-2B visa in the last three years.

In other words, it limits disruption to business, and lets businesses whose operations were disrupted get back on track.

Senator Jeff Sessions, of course, gives a number - a new number as high as he can justify - when there is no new number in the bill. Sessions is just issuing propaganda. The 83% who oppose increased immigration don't have any idea what the numbers are now, nor what any number means in real life.

The idea that immigration harms American workers is a crackpot economic theory no economist believes [there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate that] and if you believe that you've got to believe a lot of other things, including being against free trade and automation and probably for mandatory early retirement. Sessions could have legitimate sociological arguments but not this one.

Brando said...

"Ryan also thinks - he may be mistaken - that the tax code was changed in such a way so as to make a tax reform bill more likely. Except he knows President Obama is very unlikely to sign one in 2016, but he's hoping one at least can pass the House and the senate, giving the Republican candidate a platform to run on."

I think the idea there was if certain cuts were made permanent now, then the next tax reform bill would be scored as being less costly to the deficit as they wouldn't need to take into account the cuts they're now making permanent. I don't know about that strategy--the Dems may just as soon say "you already got X cut with Y effect on the deficit, now you want more???"

The Godfather said...

Say what you will about Ryan-O, at least he pushed Granny off the cliff, right?

grimson said...

We need to wait and see how the vote shakes out, including how Ryan himself votes.

I don't think he is a RINO, but if he turns out to be, there is no reason to create "Ryan-O" unless we need a term to characterize some sort of variation or subset of RINO's, of which Paul Ryan would be the most well-known example . . . or you are a tabloid editor looking for a term to punch up a headline.

Achilles said...

I wonder if the GOP is aware of the position they are in and just easing the transition when they disband and send their members over to the democrat party.

I keep thinking there have to be decent people serving as legislators in DC, but they keep proving me wrong. They should have to file this as an in kind contribution to Trump's campaign.

Bay Area Guy said...

On the merits, the critics of this budget are probably right. Very few people, including Congressmen, sift thru all the provisions. It's no doubt loaded with pork and debt.

So, Why is Ryan and GOP doing it?

I offer reasonable this speculation: they think it's more important to win the Prez in 2016, so they don't want distractions over budget/sequestering/stop-gap/debt ceiling disputes.

I don't think it's much more complicated than that. Not saying it's justifiable, just saying what's happening (I think).

mccullough said...

Paul Ryan is a tool of the Chamber of Commerce like most Republicans.

Sammy, please link to all those economic studies showing increased immigration of low skilled workers don't hurt American workers. The H2 Visa program, like the H1 Visa program, is to appease businesses that don't want to pay higher wages to Americans.

theribbonguy said...

Bay Area Guy Said
"I offer reasonable this speculation: they think it's more important to win the Prez in 2016, so they don't want distractions over budget/sequestering/stop-gap/debt ceiling disputes."

I think this is right. Which is exhibit "A" as to why the 'pubs are called the stupid party. You have to be Olympian grade obtuse to misread the mood of the electorate so profoundly. They have handed the left the funding needed for every progressive wet dream the public has been screaming to stop...without so much as a grumble.

From a 10k grant for a transvestite play in San Fran, to the money needed to import the next wave of jihadists.

Fuck Paul Ryan and the establishment GOP.

Birkel said...

You see what Ryan is doing to himself, don't you?
Shame on anybody for noticing and mentioning it!!

Birkel said...

theribbonguy:
Your wish to fuck the establishment GOP is noted.
The fact that they are currently fucking you will make it harder for you to fuck them.

The GOP left me under Bush 43. It won't come back.

Lydia said...

Ryan looks like a jihadi with that.

Yeah, really bad timing for going with that look. Reminds me of when he ordered a $350 bottle of wine in a restaurant while he was pushing his fiscal-austerity message.

Sabinal said...

what makes some of you conservatives think that you will win anything before Nov 2016 with...
1. a president who will veto anything at the drop of a hat

2. a president who will blame the Republicans for any failure and
3. a press willing to echo the presidents' opinion?


I agree with Bay Area Guy...Ryan et al are more interested in the 2016 presidency and reducing any blame right now. I also agree with Writ Small :

"I would probably be more put off by this deal if any tea-party house members had stepped up to take the leadership position...They scurried away when faced with actual responsibility and are now free to say *they* could have done it better than Ryan just like they could have done it better than Boehner."

I see the same thing in Trump. Trump is actually worse than O in terms of no political experience. Yet people are acthing like he's Jesus and the Second Coming because he is saying what people have been dying to hear (me too). The problem is will he be able to walk to talk. I don't care how many times he's been to DC. It's a whole different world at 1600 Penn Ave.

Titus said...

This is really disappointing.

I had such high hopes for Ryan as the speaker.

Unfortunately, he is just another RINO.

Very sad day.

tits.

theribbonguy said...

I hear you Birkel. I've been a "lesser of two evils" voter for so long now I can't remember what it feels like to actually vote FOR someone.

Full disclosure: I would vote for a dead cat before I would pull the lever for a D party candidate in their current incarnation.

Jupiter said...

Sammy Finkelman said...

"The idea that immigration harms American workers is a crackpot economic theory no economist believes [there is no empirical evidence to demonstrate that] and if you believe that you've got to believe a lot of other things..."

Sammy, you do go on. Listen, I work for a large American corporation. They employ a lot of very highly qualified engineers. There are two basic classes of employees at this corporation; US citizens and green card holders, who make American wages, and indentured slaves (H1B), who make considerably less than half as much, but will be deported if they quit. So what you are saying "no economist believes" is that those positions would be filled by highly-paid Americans if they were not filled by slave labor. Perhaps you could explain when it was that all reputable economists abandoned the principle of supply and demand. It must have been after I got out of college.

buwaya said...

"The idea that immigration harms American workers is a crackpot economic theory no economist believes"

This is not true. There is in fact a great deal of controversy over this.

The problem with the macro data is that the US immigration rate since WWII paralleled general economic growth and growth of employment, masking whatever relationships there were.
It will always be difficult to make a macro-case here because there are so many other confounding variables. Many studies of macro effects are, I think, disingenuous in their willingness to come to a conclusion with such ambiguous data.

However, there are plenty of micro-examples (and studies thereof) of changes in employment profiles in many industries and occupations, where competition from immigrants has indeed displaced willing American workers and has moreover depressed wages.

The only question here is whether the displaced Americans have found alternative employment through some macro-effect on the general economy generating employment - call it the "you lost your job working for a highway contractor but are now selling real estate" effect. Up to @1999-2000 there was considerable backing for this. But since then flat or declining wages and especially the massive decrease in the labor force participation rate - and the concentration of the decline in the age ranges most vulnerable to immigrant competition - suggests that this isn't working anymore, or that the effect is no longer being masked.

Check out George Borjas, http://www.hks.harvard.edu/fs/gborjas/
Just one.

Rick said...

Sabinal said...
what makes some of you conservatives think that you will win anything before Nov 2016 with...
1. a president who will veto anything at the drop of a hat


I'd love to see Obama on CNN explaining to the country he vetoed the budget and is shutting down the government because the Republican Congress refused to postpone provisions of Obamacare.

Jupiter said...

Now Drudge is saying "RYAN GIVES IT ALL AWAY".

You know, if the Republicans are actually worried about being blamed for closing down the government, they could have written the bill they wanted, and passed it, and let Obama veto it, and close down the government. That is, assuming this isn't the bill Republicans wanted. Paul Ryan seems like a nice guy. Maybe Sammie could get him a job selling real estate. Lose the beard, though.

cubanbob said...

Obama shuts the government down and only those on benefits or employed by government notice. I don't see much of a problem for the Republicans. Besides as Rick said it would be wonderfully entertaining to see Obama and the Democrats denounce the Republicans for insisting that their abortion be performed.

Bill Peschel said...

Darn, I was hoping Sammy could come in and explain why the IBM building at the Mechanicsburg business park I worked in was full of engineers from India, and how those American engineers who would have worked there still benefited by serving them lattes at the Starbucks down the street.

Birkel said...

"Sammy Finkleman" is a concern trolling Leftist.
Everything "Sammy Finkleman" writes is a distortion or an outright lie.

The Laws of Supply and Demand cannot be persuaded with argument.
The Gods of the Copybook Headings cannot be sated.

Moneyrunner said...

Don't be too hard on Ann. The omnibus bill provides everything that anyone who sucks at the government tit wants or needs. It's too bad that you are not a government employee like Ann, but that's just your tough luck. Meanwhile Drudge is being mean to ol'Paul.