House Speaker Paul Ryan refuses to back Trump

Associated Press wrote:House Speaker Paul Ryan refuses to back Donald Trump



WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan is refusing to support Donald Trump as the Republican nominee for president, insisting Thursday that the businessman must do more to unify the GOP.

The surprise declaration from Ryan on CNN’s “The Lead” amounted to a stunning rebuke of Trump from the Republican Party’s highest-ranking officeholder.

“I’m just not ready to do that at this point. I’m not there right now,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “And I hope to. And I want to, but I think what is required is that we unify this party.”

Even in an election cycle that’s exposed extreme and very public divisions within a GOP, Ryan’s decision to withhold his support from Trump was remarkable, as the GOP’s top elected leader, second in line to the presidency, turned his back on his own party’s presumptive nominee.

Ryan had maintained his silence since Trump effectively clinched the nomination with a commanding win in Indiana on Tuesday that forced his two remaining rivals from the race. Other Republican leaders, including Senate Majority Mitch McConnell, offered their grudging support for Trump, and Ryan had seemed likely to eventually do the same.

Instead he balked, in comments that could have more to do with his own political future and potential run for president in 2020.

“We will need a standard-bearer that can unify all Republicans, all conservatives, all wings of our party, and then go to the country with an appealing agenda that can be appealing to independents and disaffected Democrats,” Ryan said. “And we have work to do on this front, and I think our nominee has to lead in that effort.”

Ryan made clear he won’t be supporting Hillary Clinton and that he wants to come around to supporting Trump

“If we don’t unify all wings of this party, we’re not going to win this election,” he said. “So the question is, ‘What can you do to unify all wings of the party to go forward?’”

Ryan himself, his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, had been seen as a possible “white knight” candidate who could emerge as an alternative to Trump at a contested convention. He called a press conference last month to rule himself out, and Trump now looks set to gather the 1,237 delegate votes needed to clinch the nomination ahead of the July convention in Cleveland, ruling out the possibility of a contested convention.

Ryan will serve as the convention chairman, presiding over portions of the proceedings that will elevate Trump to the official status of nominee.

He’s spent his time since becoming speaker last fall in part on working on a GOP agenda that members of Congress could run on regardless of who emerges as the GOP nominee.

Trump has flouted a number of conservative tenets in his campaign. He has praised Planned Parenthood even as a House GOP committee investigates its practices regarding fetal tissue collection. He’s bashed trade agreements even as a major trade deal is pending before Congress. He’s criticized Ryan personally for promising to cut benefit programs such as Medicare. And just Wednesday he said he was open to the idea of raising the minimum wage.

With deep concerns about Trump at the top of the ticket, Ryan is positioning himself to play a central role in helping to protect vulnerable Republican House and Senate candidates heading into the general election, said Spencer Zwick, who is Ryan’s national finance chairman.

“Paul Ryan is the single most effective tool and person to maintain control of the Senate and the House,” said Zwick, who attended a Detroit-area fundraiser with Ryan on Wednesday.

“He’s focused on an agenda. He’s constantly out there talking about his agenda. Talk to (Sen. Rob) Portman in Ohio, or congressmen who are up, and they are very happy with the fact that Paul Ryan is promoting an agenda they can all sign on to. Many people aren’t sure what the Trump agenda is yet.”

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Associated Press writers Steve Peoples and Andrew Taylor contributed to this report.

Great, Donald Trump Threatened To Default On The National Debt

Just great.

05/06/2016 06:04 pm ET | Updated 7 hours
Zach Carter Senior Political Economy Reporter, The Huffington Post



Mark Lyons/Getty Images
Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump speaks in Charleston, West Virginia, on May 5, 2016.

Analyzing Donald Trump policy proposals is a fool’s errand. I am a fool: Behold my errand.
The presumptive GOP nominee has an idea for dealing with American debt and infrastructure. The first half of his plan makes sense. The second half is insane.
Trump laid out his plan during a CNBC appearance, which was flagged by Binyamin Applebaum at The New York Times. Interest rates on U.S. debt are very low right now, and have been for years. This makes it a great time for the government to borrow money and spend it on public needs. Roads, bridges, whatever. If there’s something that needs fixing in the United States, borrowing money to fix it is a pretty good idea right now. The boost that this improved infrastructure will give to our economy will be worth it. The economy would grow, boosting tax receipts for the federal government which would make the new debt easy to manage.
Trump believes this. So does Paul Krugman. So far, so good. But then Trump suggests something truly destructive.
“I would borrow, knowing that if the economy crashed, you could make a deal,” Trump told CNBC. If the U.S. borrowed too much and invested its fresh cash in unproductive products, Trump would tell creditors to accept less than what he’d initially agreed to.  
Another way to describe this plan: “I would default on the national debt.” Except Trump also told CNBC that he wouldn’t default on the debt, because advocating contradictory positions is part of his #brand.

Even if you subscribe to Trump’s wrong view of international finance, his comments are stupid.

The U.S. dollar is a global reserve currency. It is considered the least risky asset in international finance. If investors have to start taking haircuts on this debt, it means that the way money is measured around the world would be thrown into question. All kinds of businesses, both domestic and foreign, would grind to a halt as investors stopped to figure out how to sort out the mess. Even in a best-case scenario, the results would be catastrophic. Financial markets eventually sorted things out after the 2008 meltdown, but it still sparked the worst recession in 75 years. A default on U.S. government debt would be worse.
And there is no reason for the government to default.The U.S. government owes $12.8 trillion to the public. The majority of this money is owed to American citizens and businesses. And the annual output of the U.S. economy is currently $18.1 trillion and growing. The federal government collects over $3 trillion in taxes every year. The national debt just isn’t that big a deal. If it were, you’d see investors demanding high interest rates on American debt. But interest rates are in fact very low, meaning investors think the U.S. will not have trouble paying its debts.
Even if the United States eventually saw interest rates rise, the government could easily deal with it by raising taxes or simply printing more money. Printing money would pose the risk of modest inflation over the long term, and inflation isn’t an ideal way to deal with problems. But a little bit of inflation is way better than crashing the global economy.
But even if you subscribe to Trump’s wrong view of international finance, his comments are stupid. He is violating his own Art of the Deal negotiation standards. If you have no intention of paying off a loan, don’t tell the bank. Even if you manage to laugh it all off and get the deal, you’re going to have to pay more for that loan. The bank would have given you better terms if it had never been forced to question your intentions. If you’re going to steal something, just steal it. Telling everybody ahead of time makes it a lot harder.
But it doesn’t matter that Trump said something insane and destructive. His fans do not care, and never have cared, about whether his policy positions are good or even coherent. Life is pain, and the 2016 election is making it more painful.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/donald-trump-default-national-debt_us_572d08e3e4b096e9f0917fac 

New York Times wrote:Ryan-Trump Breach May Be Beyond Repair

WASHINGTON — To many Republicans, Speaker Paul D. Ryan’s proclamation on Thursday that he was not prepared to support Donald J. Trump seemed to be an opening bid. In truth, it was more like the final word.

Although party leaders furiously brokered a meeting between the two men at the Capitol next Thursday, it is likely that only substantial changes in Mr. Trump’s language and tenor, not just minor calibrations on policy positions, will be needed to bring Mr. Ryan to his camp.

Mr. Ryan has become increasingly depressed about the tone of the race within the Republican Party, several people who have talked to him in recent weeks said. He could not bring himself to give even nominal support to Mr. Trump, despite pressure from more conservative House Republicans, after the candidate disparaged various ethnic groups and accused Senator Ted Cruz’s father of conspiring with Lee Harvey Oswald, among other inflammatory comments. Those remarks determined Mr. Ryan’s course far more than the considerable differences on policy between the men.

Mr. Ryan’s stance may lead to the remarkable scenario of a convention chairman presiding over the nomination of a man he does not support, but it basically comes down to three things.

First, and most important: he can do it. Unlike former Speaker John A. Boehner, who had to fight to cling to his gavel almost from the moment he took it in 2011, Mr. Ryan was drafted into his job by the majority of his conference. And unlike Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the majority leader, who says he supports Mr. Trump, Mr. Ryan is largely impervious to criticism from the right. Agree or disagree with Mr. Ryan, at this point his members need him more than he needs them, at least to prevent unmitigated chaos in their ranks.

It is notable that House conservatives often derided Mr. Boehner for not “sticking to conservative principles” in negotiating with Democrats on legislation, but now are chafing that Mr. Ryan, whose conservative principles have in many ways been rejected by Mr. Trump, is not getting behind the presumptive nominee.

“Isn’t it a principle that the G.O.P. speaker would support the G.O.P. nominee?” said Representative Mick Mulvaney, Republican of South Carolina and a frequent scold of House leadership, discussing the party’s conundrum in an email exchange. (Rock: Meet hard place, over at the Speaker’s Balcony.)

Second, Mr. Ryan sees the value in protecting Republican House members up for re-election in swing districts where Mr. Trump may well be a drag on the rest of the ticket.

“I thought it was helpful,” said Representative Charlie Dent, Republican of Pennsylvania. “I believe that Paul expressed feelings that many of us have. Trump’s attacks on Muslims, the Hispanics, that David Duke fiasco, the abortion exchange with Chris Matthews, all these issues are just really unsettling.” He added, “Donald Trump has to convince many Americans, including me, that he is ready and able to lead this great country, and at the moment I am not convinced.”

Representative Ann Wagner, Republican of Missouri, made similar remarks to The St. Louis Post-Dispatch.

The third reason is that nothing Mr. Ryan has said compels him to change his current course as speaker, which is largely focused on developing an alternative Republican policy agenda and shoring up vulnerable members with money and help campaigning. He plans to develop that agenda with House members, even if election politics may well prevent any of it from becoming actual legislation.

This is perhaps the weakest reason for withholding support from Mr. Trump, since without a Republican in the White House, there will probably be no Ryan agenda. But for Mr. Ryan, Mr. Trump’s conduct appears to loom larger than the speaker’s policy dreams. So even if the candidate shows up at the Capitol next week and says “I fully support this agenda,” it would almost certainly not be enough, Ryan aides say.

Do not expect Mr. Ryan to join Senator Ben Sasse, Republican of Nebraska, who has taken to penning letters to America by the riverbanks and searching for an alternative to Mr. Trump. The speaker will probably just keep doing what he is doing: raising money for Republicans, talking — both amorphously and perhaps later more substantively — about policy ideas, and looking, with hope and some desperation, for that change in tone from the presumptive nominee.

Mr. Trump so far has not signaled that this is in the offing. On Twitter on Friday morning, he wrote: “Paul Ryan said that I inherited something very special, the Republican Party. Wrong, I didn’t inherit it, I won it with millions of voters!”