Paul Ryan Clearly Wants to be President...

In a recent speech to Congressional Interns  in Washington DC,  Speaker of the House, Paul Ryan (R-WI) sounded about as unlike a member of the Republican Party of  2016 as he possibly could have, short of showing up wearing an Obama t-shirt.

In  his speech Ryan spoke longingly of bi-partisanship, decried the "echo chamber" where politicians  only hear opinions that they already agree with, (Fox News); Even declaring "I was wrong" when in the past,  he characterized recipients of Government assistance programs as "takers".   It was an speech that Dwight Eisenhower, Gerald Ford, Bob Dole or George HW Bush could have given. It was speech that clearly declared that Paul Ryan wants to be seen as the grown up a Republican Party filled with out of control political adolescents.

Yet this is the same Paul Ryan who in his budget proposals wanted to gut medicare entirely and force America's Seniors on to a voucher based system completely at the mercy of the for profit health insurance market.

For those who have forgotten;   New York Magazine broke down the Ryan Proposals:

Ryan emphasizes that his proposal still gives seniors the choice of remaining in regular Medicare. But what he doesn’t mention is that his plan makes Medicare so expensive that millions of seniors will likely be forced to switch into the private plans. While Ryan employs a different type of bidding system for private health plans under his 2015 blueprint that softens his plan’s topline effect on beneficiaries’ costs, an earlier Congressional Budget Office (CBO) analysis of Medicare premium support systems found that plans such as Ryan’s would increase traditional Medicare premiums by a staggering 50 percent.

The millions of seniors who are forced over to private plans would also find themselves with different doctors and narrower coverage networks under Ryancare — ironic considering Republicans’ unabashed outrage over news that the Affordable Care Act had canceled about three or four million skimpy insurance policies. But unlike Obamacare, Ryan doesn’t require his replacement private plans to have a more robust base level of consumer protections and benefits than beneficiaries’ previous coverage.

But the real   problem with yesterday's stirring speech is,   the state of American Politics  that  Ryan so eloquently decries,   is one he is equally responsible for.  He has presided over a Republican controlled legislative branch, that put hatred of the President  before duty, patriotism and even basic  human decency.    While standing before a wall of American flags  tut-tutting  the lack of civility in politics,  He has led a party that has actively sought to inflict damage on the country in hopes of politically damaging the President.

This was nothing short of a Presidential Nomination acceptance speech,    Paul Ryan clearly  thinks a brokered  GOP convention may turn to him to save their party from the looming disaster of   Donald Trump or political train wreck of  Ted Cruz.

Paul Ryan's words yesterday were wonderful,  but  the reality of Paul Ryan's  actions as a congressman, a Vice Presidential candidate, and as Speaker of the House  tell a very different story.