The Ryan-Trump Bromance Has Flowered Into An Endorsement

It seems like forever, but it was just a month ago that Paul Ryan defiantly said he wasn't read to endorse the embarrassing fascist lug-head his party had been saddled with as it's presidential candidate. Today he was ready-- and he did. He wrote a column for his local paper, the GazetteXtra, and had his spokesperson tweet that that counted as an endorsement.

He tried to focus attention on his own anti-family, Ayn Rand-inspired policy agenda we've been hearing about from him for his whole austerity-pushing film flam man career. He indicated that he and has colleagues are all excited at the prospect of having "a Republican president ready to sign bills into law" and I suppose he finally realized that Trump's interests don't extend into the realm of policy. "This month," wrote Ryan, "we’ll show the country what a better tax code looks like." Of course, "better" meaning lower taxes for the wealthy... but you knew that already. And needless to say, he continued by braying that "We’ll outline a plan not just for repealing Obamacare but replacing it with a better system, more focused on patients, choices and lower costs. We’ll offer a plan to restore the Constitution and the separation of powers that decades of executive overreach have eroded. We’ll present the ideal national security and foreign policy to keep Americans safe. We’ll show how we can reform rules and regulations so they’re spurring the economy and creating jobs, not destroying them. And we’ll offer a better way to help lift people out of poverty and into lives of self-determination." Sure he will. And he knows Hillary will never go along with his destructive agenda. But... the simple-minded and easily-manipulated and flattered Trump...

To enact these ideas, we need a Republican president willing to sign them into law. That’s why, when he sealed the nomination, I could not offer my support for Donald Trump before discussing policies and basic principles.

As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall. And if we’re going to unite, it has to be over ideas.

Donald Trump and I have talked at great length about things such as the proper role of the executive and fundamental principles such as the protection of life. The list of potential Supreme Court nominees he released after our first meeting was very encouraging.

But the House policy agenda has been the main focus of our dialogue. We’ve talked about the common ground this agenda can represent. We’ve discussed how the House can be a driver of policy ideas. We’ve talked about how important these reforms are to saving our country. And we’ve talked about how, by focusing on issues that unite Republicans, we can work together to heal the fissures developed through the primary.

Through these conversations, I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas in this agenda into laws to help improve people’s lives. That’s why I’ll be voting for him this fall.

It’s no secret that he and I have our differences. I won’t pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I’ll continue to speak my mind. But the reality is, on the issues that make up our agenda, we have more common ground than disagreement.

For me, it’s a question of how to move ahead on the ideas that I-- and my House colleagues-- have invested so much in through the years. It’s not just a choice of two people, but of two visions for America. And House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead.

Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.

Trump has already been sucking up to Ryan and his ilk by flip-flopping on the minimum wage-- like Ryan, he wants to abolish it now-- flip-flopping on Social Security-- he now is open to cutting Social Security and Medicare benefits as long as no one mentions it before the election-- and eager to repeal regulations on Wall Street, one of the goals Paul Ryan lives for.

As for the little tiny things they disagree on, how much does it really mean to Ryan that since he said he wasn't ready to endorse Trump 4 weeks ago

• Trump attacked the federal judge overseeing the Trump University fraud case and going out of his way to call the Indiana-born judge "Mexican."
• Trump refused to back off his Muslim ban.
• Trump attacked New Mexico Governor and Republican Governors' Association Chair Susana Martinez.
• Trump, it came out, gleefully cheered on the housing crisis as as opportunity to profit from other people's misery.
• Trump called for teachers to have guns in classrooms.
• Trump was exposed for having lied about his donations to veterans charities.

#NeverTrump on the left; #NeverRyan on the right. Which do you like better?