Paul Ryan Announces He Won't Work With President

The extended media honeymoon of Paul Ryan, the zombie-eyed granny starver from the state of Wisconsin and the first runner-up in our most recent vice-presidential pageant, a honeymoon that never has really ended, has reached a new level of intensity now that Ryan graciously has assumed the position of Speaker of the House of Representatives. It is said that Ryan, the biggest fake in the history of recent American politics, was the only Republican capable of reuniting the House majority, which is not a very good idea, because a fractious, disunited GOP majority often was the only thing standing between the country and some truly bad ideas, many of which Paul Ryan has spent a political lifetime supporting. I, for one, was all in favor of an unruly, undisciplined mob as opposed to organized, disciplined chicanery, like we're seeing at the moment with a couple of vital pieces of legislation.

It seems you don't do sarcasm, hawk. Read Charlie Pierce's piece again.

Unless the government passes laws, all spending will stop. It would be disastrous for the country. They HAVE to pass laws as Finn has already agreed they must.

. Individual members and committee chairs will decide which staffers are "essential" and need to stay on during the shutdown (with retroactive pay) and which staffers get sent home. The latter might get back pay later on, but that's up to Congress.

And you are still wrong, because one of the jobs of Congress is to oversee the executive branch, and nothing that could remotely be called a law is required to do that,

By the way, the budget is rarely made into law

The rise of Rep. Paul Ryan to speaker of the House marks the demise of a venerable congressional institution: the speaker’s monthly expense check.

Ryan spokesman Brendan Buck told USA TODAY the Wisconsin Republican will not be accepting the $2,000 monthly check that Speaker John Boehner received for “leadership expenses.”

Congress sets aside a couple hundred thousand dollars a year for the “Official Expenses of Leaders” to pay for the kind of ceremonial activities that leaders are expected to host — $25,000 for the speaker of the House, $40,000 for the Senate majority leader, and so forth. These accounts are above and beyond the budgets each leader is given for salaries and expenses in their leadership offices.

These things generally show up listed in House expenditure records as specific expenses, such as the $7,000 House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., spent on catering March 18, for a bipartisan event honoring of the women justices of the Supreme Court.

In the Senate leadership offices, the expenses are reported as “supplies and materials.” The most recent Senate spending reports showed Majority Leader Mitch McConnell spent a little over $16,000 from this account from September 2014 through March 2015; Minority Leader Harry Reid spent just over $18,000.

But departed House speaker John Boehner simply received a $2,083.33 payment for expenses each month — no itemization required. He was the last leader in Congress to receive this check – Democratic Whip Steny Hoyer of Maryland stopped receiving a monthly payout in February 2011, after Roll Call wrote a story about the expense accounts.

With the end of the congressional expense check, Ryan gets credit for a change in “how the House does business.”