Paul Ryan, the self-described budget expert among the Republican leadership in the House of Representatives, was conspicuously absent during the government shutdown. What was he doing instead? Ryan was working behind the scenes to craft immigration legislation granting blanket amnesty for 12 million illegal aliens and massive increases in new immigration and guest worker programs. Conspicuously absent from his “principles for reform” is anything that might loosely be defined as protecting the interests of the American people. Surely, when more people are dropping out of the labor force than can find a job, when the national debt is topping $17 trillion, and Obamacare is imploding before it even gets off the ground, Ryan’s top priority shouldn’t be to revive catastrophic immigration legislation that richly deserves to die in the House.
Perhaps the unpopularity of the Republican Party has less to do with Ted Cruz than it does with Paul Ryan.