Arggghhh! The Trump Titanic hit a pretty big iceberg this morning! But well-to-do passenger Paul Ryan isn’t panicking. He still wants his caviar, and thinks the string quartet isn’t anywhere close to playing “Nearer My God To Thee.”
"Nothing's going to derail what we're doing in Congress," Ryan said on WTAQ's "The Jerry Bader Show," which broadcasts from not-that-wealthy Green Bay, Wisconsin, where everyone who's no one with an estate over $11 million is clamoring for estate tax repeal.
Passenger Ryan really must still be plastered from the college keggers to think he’s going to ram through tax cuts that give the wealthiest 3 percent of the population 80 percent of the bounty while the Titanic is sinking! What are the “pay fors?” Will he convince blue state Republicans to vote to abandon the SALT deductions? Or convince the housing industry to blithely drop tax breaks for homeowners?
Or, to fulfill his fondest kegger wet dream, will Ryan in the end try to convince House & Senate Republicans to pay for this massive, unnecessary tax cut for the wealthy by decimating the Medicare and Medicaid benefits Americans rely on?
It’s going to be especially tough for passenger Ryan because the captain of the Trump Titanic has never released his own tax returns. The average American hasn’t a clue how much Trump and his loved ones are going to rake off of this Enterprise (and I sure don’t mean Starship.)
The Trump Titanic has been springing massive leaks for a while now. But I’d say Special Counsel Mueller tore a pretty big hole in the hull this morning, when he accused former Campaign Manager Paul Manafort and his Deputy, Rick Gates, of “conspiracy against the United States.” That really doesn’t sound too good.
But Speaker Ryan is undaunted. He’s damn well not going to let a couple of indictments and a little guilty plea from Trump adviser George Papadopoulos, who now admits he lied about meeting with Russian agents, dampen his spirits or his plans.
Mueller fired a great big shot across the bow of the Trump Titanic today, and passenger Ryan just shrugged. Shrugged like Atlas in that Ayn Rand novel Ryan sleeps with under his pillow. “We can still ram the tax cut for the donors through before the Titanic sinks,” he likely thought. “If we don’t get it, I’ll just jump & try to swim.” Maybe even cashing out for the big bucks and joining old crony Eric Cantor on Wall Street...
Meanwhile, I have some advice for Americans, and specifically Wisconsinites. Check out an honest, caring ironworker from Racine named Randy Bryce, who’s running against Ryan in 2018. Let’s make America America again.