House Democrats Hand Paul Ryan His First Defeat By Rejecting Republican Spending Proposal

Last updated on December 3rd, 2015 at 06:01 pm

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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) needs Democratic votes to pass the Republican spending bill, but his first proposal was rejected by Democrats because it contained over 30 poison pill policy riders.

The Hill reported:

Citing dozens of “poison-pill” riders, House Democrats have rejected the Republicans’ initial year-end government funding bill and plan to respond with their own alternative package.

GOP leaders had delivered the sweeping spending proposal to the Democrats on Tuesday evening as Congress scrambles to fund the government and prevent a shutdown ahead of a looming Dec. 11 deadline.

But Democratic leaders said “more than 30” Republican policy amendments, known as riders, made the package unacceptable, according to a senior Democratic aide familiar with the budget talks.

Laughably, House Republicans sent a proposal to Democrats gutting environmental regulations, Wall Street reform, and shutting down the Syrian refugee program.

Democrats immediately said no, and reminded Ryan that they told him that the bill needed to be done by November 20. Instead, Republicans went home for Thanksgiving and left the task of avoiding a government shutdown on December 11 for the last minute.

Paul Ryan is finding out what life is really like as the Speaker of the dysfunctional Republican House. Rep. Ryan needs the poison pill riders or he faces the real possibility of losing almost all of his Republican support. In the best case scenario, Speaker Ryan will need dozens of Democratic votes to pass the funding bill, and Democrats will not support anything containing riders that are nothing more than a Republican policy wish list.

Just like John Boehner, Ryan is going to have to cave. Speaker Ryan has to drop the poison pill riders in the funding bill or his first major act as speaker will be a government shutdown.

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

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Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association