re: #103 Fourth Football of the Apocalypse

I’d think Paul Ryan’s budget is more severely conservative than anything Walker could do in Wisconsin.

But what do I know?

In this minds of many on the right, and not just wingnuts, Chairman Ryan should not have worked to push Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) through the House. Some think that doing that a bad idea because it gave negotiating power to Barack Obama, who they think cannot be trusted with it. Others are anti-free trade while still others want an Asian trade regime designed to place overt pressure on China (which is not going to happen in the real world, even if Trump were president).

Mixed in are feeling that Paul Ryan acted as he did in service to TEH EEEBBILL KOCH BROTHERS!!!1. In actuality, Koch Industries would not gain hugely from the Partnership of the Pacific (though it would likely benefit), and Freedom Partners (the primary Koch political organization) supported the deal out of principal and in support of other firms which would gain more. Charles and David Koch are the prime movers behind most of what Freedom Partners does, but on this matter they weren’t the policy drivers (though they supported TTP).