Donald Trump and Paul Ryan could not be further apartDonald Trump and Paul Ryan, who met on Capitol Hill Thursday to work out their differences, are probably the two most important Republican figures since President Obama took office.
Ryan laid the intellectual groundwork for the House GOP majority that took over in 2010 and now leads it as speaker. Trump led a populist uprising that trampled on conservative dogma and now has taken over the party.
The conflict between the two has become the lead flashpoint in the GOP civil war over Trump’s candidacy. Ryan has refused to endorse Trump and continued to do so on Thursday, despite some kind words.
“I was very encouraged with this meeting, but this is a process,” he told reporters. “It takes a little time. You don’t put it together in 45 minutes.”
Much has been made of the philosophical differences between the two when it comes to policy. Ryan favors immigration reform with a path to citizenship, expanding free trade and cutting entitlements. Trump favors mass deportations, rails against trade deals and has promised not to touch Social Security and Medicare. Ryan has tried to tone down Republican rhetoric; Trump has dialed it up to 11....
Trump took a different route. He calculated that Republicans had misread their 2010 and 2014 gains as a sober-minded endorsement of Ryan’s preferred policy approach. Instead, it was about angry voters upset with the economic crash and viscerally opposed to all things Obama.
Instead of asking people to accept painful choices, Trump promised no choices at all. Through the power of positive thinking, voters could have everything they wanted and more.
Trump proposed a massive $9.5 trillion tax cut while promising to increase military spending, invest in infrastructure, deport 11 million people, and protect Social Security and Medicare from cuts. When pressed how he’d pay for all of it, he falls back to the same “waste, fraud and abuse” platitudes that Ryan had rebelled against in 2010. It was enough to make a calculator cry.In recent weeks, Trump hasn’t even been consistent on whether a balanced budget is desirable, let alone achievable. Last month, he said he would somehow eliminate the entire national debt in eight years – Ryan’s 2010 plan didn’t even eliminate the deficit until 2063 – but a few days later he backed off and suggested it was a good time to borrow. T
his month he said deficits were not a concern because the U.S. could print more money or even force creditors to accept less than they were owed on treasury bonds, an idea experts across the spectrum warned could destroy the economy..http://www.msnbc.com/msnbc/donald-trump-and-paul-ryan-could-not-be-further-apart
