Paul Ryan Has Failed Spectacularly

First Read: “House Speaker Paul Ryan, who delivers his farewell address today at 1:00 pm ET, always had big ideas. He called for the government to respond to the growing deficit/debt; he advocated for a fundamental restructuring of Medicare and entitlements; he pushed for tax reform; and he demanded an improvement in the nation’s political discourse.”

“But those ideas — except for tax reform — never really matched up to reality and party politics. The debt and deficit he saw a ‘crisis’ to reduce? Well, it’s gone up in the Trump years when Ryan was speaker and the GOP controlled government. Major entitlement reform? Hasn’t happened. Improving political discourse? Hello, President Trump.”

“Ryan’s defenders say it’s difficult to continue to tackle the deficit/debt when the other players — especially the White House — aren’t interested.”