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babylonsister

(171,070 posts) Fri Jan 26, 2018, 10:33 AM Jan 2018

Paul Ryans latest political gambit is appalling, even for Paul Ryan

https://thinkprogress.org/paul-ryan-congratulates-himself-for-chip-5f517e6c387b/

Paul Ryan’s latest political gambit is appalling, even for Paul Ryan
The House Speaker takes a victory lap that's dishonest even by his standards.
Aaron Rupar
Jan 25, 2018, 4:16 pm

On Thursday, House Speaker Paul Ryan released a statement patting himself on the back for shepherding “the longest extension of the Children’s Health Insurance Program in history” through Congress.

Link to tweet

Ryan’s statement is galling, given the political games Republicans played with CHIP since federal funding for the program lapsed four months ago.

snip//

In short, Ryan taking credit for the CHIP extension is akin to a hostage-taker congratulating himself for eventually letting the hostage go. But Ryan goes even further. In his self-congratulatory statement, he suggests that it’s Democrats who don’t care about the children:

As you may know, this took longer than it should have. Last month, Speaker Ryan talked about CHIP’s history of bipartisan support. “Care for children in need should always, always go beyond party lines,” he said. Yet, five times in 2 ½ months, a majority of House Democrats voted to block both short-term and long-term extensions of CHIP funding. Even this week, with several states on the verge of running out of CHIP funds, Democrats maintained their opposition.

What Ryan doesn’t mention is that in each of the five instances he alludes to, Republicans tied funding for a CHIP extension in with poison pills Democrats were unwilling to swallow, such as gutting the Affordable Care Act’s public health fund.