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Will First District Rep. Paul Ryan have an issue to campaign on this year? By Norm Siler
The answer depends on his own party, on Senate Republicans, who have fought normal legislative progress at every turn with delays to the process. The process in the U.S. Senate has been delayed enough to put many needed bills in danger, until Majority Leader Harry Reid found ways to overcome the obstructions and pass defense spending, homeland security spending, an up-to-date GI Bill, and much else.
In mid-January however, Rep. Paul Ryan presumed that Senate Republicans will also fail to block health care reform, which has been whittled down from its early ambitious goals with many compromises. Some shrinkage of reform goals was made to include moderate Republican senators, but the more radical faction has won out among them so far. Won out for the same reason Rep. Paul Ryan now promises he will campaign to repeal health care reform -- even before it's passed by Congress. He and many other Republicans rely on large chunks of money donated by deep-pocketed donors to pay for costly TV ads that dazzle voters into voting for their re-election.
And those deep pockets want no part of health care reform.
So who will win out? Rep. Paul Ryan, who needs a reform bill passed by Congress and signed by President Obama so he can campaign to repeal it? Or Senate Minority Leader McConnell, of Kentucky, whose leadership has kept every single Republican in line to vote against health care reform, against every step toward it, and against other bills just to complicate the normal processes?
Stay tuned, First CD Democrats. We might yet see Congressman Ryan get a comeuppance from another senior Republican, in the other body.
Norm Siler
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Rep. Paul Ryan's pledge against reform was made January 13 and reported by a non-partisan capitol news site, thehill.com