Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), the poster-child of the Republican Party during the 2012 presidential election campaign, has been strangely quiet during the Tea Party-engineered government shutdown over defunding Obamacare. That’s until he wrote an op-ed in the Wall Street Journal detailing how to break the stalemate. Conservatives pounced because he didn’t mention ‘Obamacare.’ Um, get out the popcorn. This is about to get crazy.
In the Wall Street Journal op-ed, Paul Ryan proposed a deal to solve the government shutdown by trading sequestration-induced cuts for entitlement reforms:
If Mr. Obama decides to talk, he’ll find that we actually agree on some things. For example, most of us agree that gradual, structural reforms are better than sudden, arbitrary cuts. For my Democratic colleagues, the discretionary spending levels in the Budget Control Act are a major concern. And the truth is, there’s a better way to cut spending. We could provide relief from the discretionary spending levels in the Budget Control Act in exchange for structural reforms to entitlement programs.
Defunding Obamacare, which was the reason the Tea Party-led government shutdown occurred in the first place, wasn’t mentioned in his column. Ryan’s column, which is calling for a pivot from the mess and straight to entitlements, isn’t fitting in with the narrative being spewed by House Republicans, who now want to tie Obamacare to the debt ceiling.
Here’s the reaction on Twitter:
There is one big word missing from this op-ed. It's start with an O and ends with BAMACARE http://t.co/r1cYgjWEL5
— Amanda Carpenter (@amandacarpenter) October 9, 2013
So the question for @robertcostaNRO, is: Who is Paul Ryan speaking for in his WSJ op-ed? http://t.co/SEuoohszFw
— Ross Douthat (@DouthatNYT) October 8, 2013
Don't understand Paul Ryan's philosophy re: dropping ObamaCare demands. Is GOP rallying against this horrific law or not? #consistency
— Jedediah Bila (@JedediahBila) October 9, 2013
.@ATLjackie Suddenly the GOP strategy is not about Obamacare. Now Paul Ryan and others are back to talking about debt. What Cruz strategy?
— Joe Scarborough (@JoeNBC) October 9, 2013
This article was cross-posted from The Hinterland Gazette.