Ryan picks party over country by pushing healthcare bill

Remember the phrase “compassionate conservative?” Those words and that sentiment seem out of fashion these days.

One political figure who was supposed to personify that moniker was the present Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan, Republican from Wisconsin. He has been favorably described as an “intellectual leader,” someone with “economic knowledge and youthful energy.”

You might remember that he was drafted to his now lofty position. Members of the right-wing GOP fringe that drove John Boehner to resign from the Speakership and the House settled for Ryan because they knew a majority of the GOP would not take one of their own.

Ryan didn’t yell or scream. He appeared reasonable and well-modulated. He even smiled. Overall, he made a good impression on TV and it was said that all factions of his party found him available and accessible. Best of all, he was a disciple of the late Jack Kemp, Republican congressman from New York and the 1996 GOP vice presidential nominee.

Kemp deserved all the high praise and commendation he got from colleagues. You might have disagreed with his supply-side economics and tax-cuts-at-all-costs philosophy, but you had to like and admire him as a person.

I came into some contact with Kemp over the fight to get a modicum of democracy for District of Columbia residents. He jumped into this fray because he believed it was just plain wrong to deprive 670,000 Americans a vote in the U.S. House of Representatives.

{mosads}There was nothing in it for him. (Except that his grandchildren would grow up and have a real vote.) His motivation was pure. He went about it with enormous drive and genuine enthusiasm. He even got 22 House Republicans in the House to vote for the bill giving D.C. a House vote (including Ryan and now-Vice President Mike Pence).

Thinking about the late congressman, I can’t help saying paraphrasing another VP nominee, Sen. Lloyd Bentsen (D-Texas): “I knew Jack Kemp. Jack Kemp was a friend of mine. Paul Ryan, you are no Jack Kemp.”

Nothing makes this more obvious than Ryan’s leadership and advocacy for a bill to repeal the Affordable Care Act and replace it with a piece of legislation that, at its core, is just plain cruel.

Ryan, in his desperation to pass anything and label it a “health insurance bill,” adopted the precepts of those in his party who want to make the lives of those who are not well-off more vulnerable and insecure.

Eduardo Porter, writing in The New York Times, eloquently described the Ryan bill as “A Health Bill that Wounds,” and hypothesized that:

Might an uninsured mother become more reluctant to let her child play outdoors and risk and expensive broken arm? Might depression and mental health problems destabilize families, feeding down into the health, education and well-being of the next generation?

But Ryan is in no way sensitive or understanding of this human factor. No, Ryan, behind his pleasant exterior, is intent on making this country a harsher and more unpleasant place.

He is a man of ideas — but the ideas are bad ones. He is now just a party man, no different than the likes of House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), the almost-replacement for Boehner who couldn’t get approved by his own colleagues. Ryan merely wants to get something passed, even if that means making people’s lives worse.

The Speaker of the House is second in line to be president. One would hope that the position would bring with it an abundant degree of independence, courage and — yes — compassion.

But for Speaker Ryan, that is definitely not the case.

Mark Plotkin is a contributor to the BBC on American politics and a columnist for The Georgetowner. Previously, he was the political analyst for WAMU-FM, Washington’s NPR affiliate, where he co-hosted the “D.C. Politics Hour With Mark Plotkin.” He later became the political analyst for WTOP-FM, Washington’s all-news radio station, where he hosted “The Politics Hour With Mark Plotkin.” He is a winner of the Edward R. Murrow Award for excellence in writing.

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