The chaos in the House over the government funding bill is happening because Speaker Paul Ryan is acting like a minion for Trump and Sean Hannity, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD).
Van Hollen said on MSNBC’s Andrea Mitchell Reports, “We had a big bipartisan vote here on the Senate to keep the government open, and stop-gap until February 8th, and now, Paul Ryan in the closing days as speaker has to do the right thing for the country, and for the House, and has to let democracy do its will and put this up for the vote. And the House should not be the minions for the president or Sean Hannity on Fox. They need to take the vote, and if the president is going to veto, because he is proud to shut down the government, that is his decision, but the house has to do their job and they should not be scampering down to the White House get instructions from the president.”
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The chaos in the House over the government funding bill is happening because Speaker Paul Ryan is acting like a minion for Trump and Sean Hannity, according to Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD). https://t.co/TsxS7fH6fK pic.twitter.com/9VfBrEHFML
— PoliticusUSA (@politicususa) December 20, 2018
Sen. Van Hollen hit on the fatal flaw with this process. House Republicans want instructions from Trump, but Trump has no idea what he is doing. He doesn’t know if he wants to shut the government down or sign the bill and go on vacation. The government shutdown is not Paul Ryan’s problem. He is in his final days as Speaker of the House, but Ryan wants to be president, so he doesn’t want to alienate the Trump base.
Paul Ryan is acting like a puppet. One of the great outcomes of Democrats taking back the House is that the House will be soon restored to being a co-equal branch of government. There will be no more running to the White House at the 11th hour to coddle a president who can’t make decisions.
The grown-ups are coming back to power and that means that the puppeteer’s strings are being cut off of the House.
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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association
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