April 16, 2018
Ryan rose to prominence in the GOP by inveighing against debt. In 2008, he introduced "A Roadmap for America's Future," arguing: "America has a choice between two futures. In one - the fiscal path we're on now - we continue trying to meet the needs of a rapidly changing world with outdated programs that are growing themselves right into extinction. This will lead us down a fiscal path on which Americans' health and retirement security programs collapse; we condemn future generations to a crushing burden of debt and taxes; and our economy is crippled and unable to compete with the rest of the world. And when I see a government that makes promises it can't possibly keep; a future where my kids will be worse off than I am; and an American economy that will struggle to compete - let alone lead - in an international economy - I see the need for a plan that sets a different course." Year after year, Ryan harangued Congress about the debt, warning that a debt crisis was inevitable if we kept spending. He offered in one budget plan after another tax cuts along with an assortment of discretionary cuts and entitlement reforms. He reminded the country, "The Congressional Budget Office has estimated several times over nearly 20 years that congressional action to reduce deficits will ultimately result in lower interest rates and faster economic growth by freeing up savings for use in productive investment."
Ryan's great accomplishment by his own reckoning is his tax cut. (It is not reform; it makes the code more, not less complicated.) That plan will leave a mountain of debt that dwarfs prior projections. CBO recently explained, "As deficits accumulate in CBO's projections, debt held by the public rises from 78 percent of GDP (or $16 trillion) at the end of 2018 to 96 percent of GDP (or $29 trillion) by 2028. That percentage would be the largest since 1946 and well more than twice the average over the past five decades." Put differently, Ryan's "greatest accomplishment" is to make much, much worse the problem he has spent a decade fighting. And for what? Now Ryan shrugs and tells us that the debt was always going to balloon. On its own terms, the tax cut does very little good - even with the sunniest projections - while making the single biggest economic problem (ask Ryan!), namely the debt, much worse. And for that, which really is Ryan's sole claim to fame, Ryan enabled, encouraged and defended Trump every step of the way. I could go on, but you get the point. You did all that, Mr. Speaker, for a tax cut, and one that delivers, on balance, very little - if any - long-term benefits. Oh, and you very likely have consigned your party to minority status in the House. I suppose there have been speakers with worse records, but I just can't think of any right now.
