Back in 2012, when Rep. Ryan — former vice presidential candidate and the once and future Speaker of the House — authored a budget that drastically cut money to programs that benefit the poor, the U.S. Catholic Conference of Bishops said the budget failed to meet certain moral criteria.
Here.You can read more.
And while recently, Rep. Ryan was immensely clear that he wants to maintain a work-family balance in his new position, he is not in the least interested in making sure you have one, too.
Ryan has named his chief of staff, Washington insider David Hoppe. Aaand here we go.
Dating Jesus 
American Catholics don’t pay attention to the USCCB unless they’re saying something American Catholics want to hear. Ryan should be no exception. It’s hard enough to politically reconcile Randian Objectivism with neoliberal Catholicism without being forced to recognize an authority of Catholic clerics who, it seems, cannot even agree among themselves about what the God of Abraham really wants his people to do…about anything.
I wondering how much of the Congressional Members Representational Allowances (MRA) is actually used to pick up the tab for those weekly flights home. House members get about $250,000 a year for “official” expenses. Without spending a couple of years going line by line through quarterly disbursement reports, and then checking the validity of all his vouchers, it’s impossible to tell. (OpenSecrets has some .csv files of disbursement report summaries but I can’t read those with my current system.) And then there’s the MRA for his Committee memberships…Ways and Means and Budget.
And I’m wondering if, as Speaker of the House, his MRA would increase. He gets a $174,000 salary as a House member, plus the MRA and other perks, and if elected he’ll get an additional $223,500 as Speaker. Which would put his take just below the Presidential Salary of $400,000 per annum. (No wonder he’s smilin’!) Not bad for an Objectivist Catholic whose entire career, not to mention family fortune, is tied to the American taxpayers’ largesse…a largesse American taxpayers allow people like Ryan to control…utterly and completely. A small price to pay for Representative Democracy™, I suppose.
Onward Objectivist Christian Soldiers! Just kick those poor people out of the way.
I did not know that. I mean, aren’t they kind of in charge, the bishops?
In charge of what? American Catholics? Not doing such a great job there if that’s the case.
Policy? They don’t even agree with their (current) pope on most things. The Cardinals can’t even come to any agreement.
Ryan himself thumbed his nose at the USCCB when it criticized his economic philosophy. Besides…Ryan wants to get rid of ObamaCare®…so…you know…he can’t be all that bad as far as they’re concerned. What’s a little apostasy among friends? Interesting conversation at dinner…that’s about it.