Paul Ryan Revives Welfare Reform Push

This is what conservatives do with political power:

“WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, W.Va. — Senate Republicans last December panned Speaker Paul Ryan’s pitch to overhaul entitlements. But the Wisconsin Republican is back at it again, repackaging his proposals in hopes of gaining traction on welfare reform.

During a GOP retreat here in Appalachia, Ryan urged congressional Republicans to tackle “workforce development.” He messaged the somewhat amorphous phrase as a matter of “helping people”— not a budget-cutting excursive. …

House conservatives, however, are applauding the effort. Standing inside an expansive ballroom at the Greenbrier Resort Wednesday evening, House Republican Study Committee Chairman Mark Walker said there are “24 million people who are out of the workforce who are abled-body adults.”

“If you really want someone to get out there and find fulfillment… even though you’ve got to get the framing or the phrasing right, wouldn’t you want to see that person excel?” he asked.

A little remarketing might be in order, he added: “When we talk about ‘Medicaid reform,’ that’s not a great buzz phrase.” …

GOP cheerleaders of the idea appears to recognize the sensitivity of the issue. Walker, for instance, pointed out that 63 percent of people using such federal benefits are white, perhaps in a bid to pre-empt accusations that tackling the safety net would be a racially tinged exercise.”

It is a revealing insight into how they see the world.

Conservatives think purely in terms of the interests of the wealthy, business interests, employers, etc. There are 24 million discouraged able-bodied adults who are out of the workforce. That’s another potential supply of cheap labor for their donors. In order for them to “get out there and find fulfillment” in life, they need to be pushed into the workforce by cutting entitlement programs.

If it were not for the upset victory of Doug Jones in Alabama, the Republicans would be using the budget reconciliation process to jam this through Congress. They were talking about doing it last November and December after finishing the tax cuts. Their priorities are always neoliberal economics. They run on populist promises and spend the political capital on conservative policies.

I mean … it is like the ostensible reason they were elected was to BUILD THE WALL and STOP DACA and BRING BACK OUR JOBS and once they get in there they spin around on a dime and push the DREAM Act and welfare reform because that is what the deep pocketed donors demand they do.

This is unlikely to go anywhere in the current Congress. If the GOP ever got 60 votes in the Senate though, this is the sort of thing they would do instead of deportation squads.