Paul Ryan Revives Welfare Reform Push

This is what conservatives do with political power:

“WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Senate Republicans last December panned Speaker Paul Ryan’s pitch to overhaul entitlements. But the Wisconsin Republican is back at it again, repackaging his proposals in hopes of gaining traction on welfare reform.

During a GOP retreat here in Appalachia, Ryan urged congressional Republicans to tackle “workforce development.” He messaged the somewhat amorphous phrase as a matter of “helping people”— not a budget-cutting excursive. …

House conservatives, however, are applauding the effort. Standing inside an expansive ballroom at the Greenbrier Resort Wednesday evening, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said there are “24 million people who are out of the workforce who are abled-body adults.”

“If you really want someone to get out there and find fulfillment… even though you’ve got to get the framing or the phrasing right, wouldn’t you want to see that person excel?” he asked.

A little remarketing might be in order, he added: “When we talk about ‘Medicaid reform,’ that’s not a great buzz phrase.” …

GOP cheerleaders of the idea appears to recognize the sensitivity of the issue. Walker, for instance, pointed out that 63 percent of people using such federal benefits are white, perhaps in a bid to pre-empt accusations that tackling the safety net would be a racially tinged exercise.”

It is a revealing insight into how they see the world.

Conservatives think purely in terms of the interests of the wealthy, business interests, employers, etc. There are 24 million discouraged able-bodied adults who are out of the workforce. That’s another potential supply of cheap labor for their donors. In order for them to “get out there and find fulfillment” in life, they need to be pushed into the workforce by cutting entitlement programs.

If it were not for the upset victory of Doug Jones in Alabama, the Republicans would be using the budget reconciliation process to jam this through Congress. They were talking about doing it last November and December after finishing the tax cuts. Their priorities are always neoliberal economics. They run on populist promises and spend the political capital on conservative policies.

I mean … it is like the ostensible reason they were elected was to BUILD THE WALL and STOP DACA and BRING BACK OUR JOBS and once they get in there they spin around on a dime and push the DREAM Act and welfare reform because that is what the deep pocketed donors demand they do.

This is unlikely to go anywhere in the current Congress. If the GOP ever got 60 votes in the Senate though, this is the sort of thing they would do instead of deportation squads.

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3 Comments

  1. WELFARE REFORM IS BADLY NEEDED–HOW TO CUT 90% OF THE FEDERAL BUDGET.

    We are 20 trillion dollars in debt, so we must cut all welfare.

    Cut Israel and 3rd world countries off the dole….no more foreign aid.
    Cut aliens off the dole–i.e. free visas, so ban immigration. No more aliens.
    Cut corporations off the dole–too much corporate welfare in terms of govt. contracts for fake research, etc.
    Cut universities off the dole–professors doing nothing, most are fake diploma mills, bloated. 90% of them are not needed. Shut them down.
    Trim the military–it is nothing but welfare for Israel. We just need a border wall and fire 90% of the military.

  2. I have no problem with cutting white people off the dole, but it *must* coincide with mass deportations to open up jobs for them. Or not. If the government stops bribing socially excluded white men not to overthrow the system, what happens, happens.

    When the dollar collapses and sixty million starving white people need jobs *now*, businesses will receive an ultimatum: Fire all foreign employees and replace them with Americans*, or find a smoking cellar hole where your business used to be.

    *The mobs’ definition of “Americans” might be broader than ours, possibly including descendants of black slaves, but it’ll be a lot narrower than Donald Trump’s!

  3. It’s time for a BGI. That would allow everyone some income support while also encouraging people to get into employment.

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