You likely are right—Ryan is tied to these horrific, worse-than-they-already-have “reforms” of his. But note, he’s got McConnell playing bad cop already, saying they won’t move on taxes before the fall. That easily could become the spring and then not until after the midterm—when the GOP could well lose the House.
Disappointing about Gingrich, but the man does seem to slip from one side to the next at times.
I suspect that McConnell is the real gopE puppet-master when it comes to congress. He’s probably got Ryan’s ego puffed up like a balloon and egging him on to be more public about their rotten schemes.