Paul Ryan was Donald Trump a couple terms ago.
He was a rock star on the right because he took on the entitlement culture (and lost) in a very similarly brave way that The Donald is now taking on immigration.
What happened to Paul Ryan since then is a shame and he’s not the same man.
Regardless, it is easy to see why Ryan does not like Trump. Trump essentially represents Obama’s third/fourth terms in respect to entitlement reform. Meaning that Trump is WRONG on entitlements and does not favor gradually reversing them as does Ryan.
Entitlement reform is at least as important as immigration issues. Entitlements are the magnet.
Ryan deserves all the grief he gets today. But on this issue he was/is right and Trump is wrong. The Ryan/McConnel misguided strategy of giving up on entitlement reform until we elect a Republican president suffered a death blow when it became apparent Trump would win.
Ryan’s primary goal of entitlement reform is a righteous one and his work against immigration constraints is NOT.
Trump’s primary goal of fixing illegal immigration is a righteous one and his promises to keep entitlements in tact is NOT.
Pray that they (or someone) achieve both their primary goals.
The two goals are so inextricably linked that I find it a crying shame the two men don’t recognize this seemingly obvious truth and join forces instead of thinking of themselves first.
Ryan is corrupted by the cheap labor / big donor crowd.
Trump is either wimping out on entitlement reform just to avoid the issue during the election or he really (wrongly) believes the central government’s role is to take care of people. The former would be a moral flaw. The latter would be a devastating misunderstanding of the American ideal.
Both men have admirable primary goals. Both men are terribly flawed regarding complementary goals.
Have to disagree with you on a few things:
1) There is no way in hell you are going to get entitlement reform without a growing economy where the growth is spread out over more then the top 15 % of family incomes. To think otherwise is delusional.
2) If you have a growing economy where folks see there is an opportunity they will accept some reduction in unemployment benefits and other payments, once most of the folks do not think they might need them. That means near full employment and rising wages. Otherwise..no sell.
3) you are not going to get 1 or 2 unless you do something about immigration and shipping value added jobs overseas.
So without the Trump reforms all the good ideas about entitlement reform are completely unrealistic. You cannot expect folks to vote to cut their social security payments or raise the retirement age to 70 when the are just scraping by.
Just something to ponder.