Page 18 February 8, 2018 EL SEGUNDO HERALD
Politically Speaking
One Man’s Opinion Another Man’s Opinion
Speaker Paul Ryan Can Delete Tweets,
But Can’t Hide His Deceitful Ways
By Cristian Vasquez
During the weekend, Speaker of the House
Paul Ryan made headlines for all the wrong
reasons. Turns out the Wisconsin lawmaker
decided to use Twitter to praise the new tax
plan approved in Congress. The tweet has
since been deleted, but Ryan put out in the
Twitterverse that, “A secretary at a public
high school in Lancaster, Pennsylvania said
she was pleasantly surprised her pay went
up $1.50 a week...she said [that] will more
than cover her Costco membership for the
year.” While it is not surprising that Ryan
has since deleted his words, it is infuriating
to know that this lawmaker who earns
$223,500 wants to come out and comment
on a worker’s $1.50 weekly increase in pay.
He wants to tell us how great that is for the
worker and the economy. The man is out
of touch with reality. He is delusional if he
really believes that a $1.50 raise is going to
improve anyone’s lifestyle.
If Ryan wants to lower the standard for
a better life at being able to afford Costco
membership, then how little does he think of
our nation? Let’s do Ryan’s math: A $1.50
raise a week, multiplied by 52 weeks in a
year, will total $78 a year. With 78 extra
dollars, how can anyone improve their quality
of life? What big-ticket item that will
stimulate the economy can a person buy
with an additional $78 a year? What type
of investment can a worker make with $78
that can provide some financial security?
None. There are no viable options with that
amount of money. That might be one-week
worth of groceries, but it does not improve
the living conditions for the worker. Personally,
I would rather keep paying that extra
$78 each year so that the low-cost clinic
that saved my life can stay open. The extra
$78 will be of greater benefit to the senior
citizen who’s waiting on his Meals-On-Wheels
delivery. I’m not losing my Costco membership
without that money, but many people
will be losing their community resources
because some weasel in Washington who
earns more than $200,000 a year wants to
“save” a receptionist $78 a year.
As frustrating as Ryan’s tweet is, there
is nothing surprising about his out-of-touch
comments. The man has proven time and
time again that he is no more than a cowardly
puppy running in circles in an effort to appease
President Trump. Ryan will jump through
hoops for a president who described him as a
“very weak and ineffective leader.” And, like
most Republicans under this administration,
Ryan has decided to accept each and every
belittling comment made by Trump and has
gone as far as justifying it by saying, “It’s
what he does…we’ve kind of learned to live
with it.” Maybe Ryan enjoys being the errand
boy for Trump who has to convince people
that an extra $78 a year will improve their
quality of life. Or maybe he just doesn’t have
the decency to speak the truth. Maybe, just
maybe, he’s too much of a coward to call
out the tax plan for what it really is. Since
Ryan’s considering not running for reelection
this year, everything indicates that the
weasel is running home to hide. •
State of the Union Address Shows How
Fractured Swampers in Washington Are
By Duane Plank
Thanks for putting down your cell phone for
a couple of minutes, giving up the all-important
checking of Facebook and email for a bit,
and reading an incredibly well-thought-out
political screed.
Last week, President Trump made his first
State of the Union address. Yes, it ran a tad
bit long, but seemed to strike a conciliatory
pose -- even towards the boycotting libs who
did not attend the SOTU address (think Mad
Max Waters) or the Dems who did their
duty and attended the speech. Think another
California lib senator, “Fancy Pants” Nancy
Pelosi, made a spectacle of herself reacting
to everything Trump said, acting as if she had
swallowed a bag of lemons or discovered a
skunk running through her NoCal mansion.
Stock market up, said Trump. Pelosi skowered.
Not sure what Chuckie Schumer was
doing -- probably nodding off. Unemployment
down. Dems sat on their hands, or something
else. ISIS had their butt kicked. No response
from the lefties.
Now, I need to make sure that I have some
credibility here. I am not, and have never
been, an always-Trumper. He has his faults
and some of his comments and decisions
stretch the borders of credulity.
And yeah, he probably spends too much
time watching the congratulators on FOX
News Channel, and jetting off to Mar-a-Lago
for golfing and tweeting weekends. As he did
last weekend after okaying the release of the
scandalous Federal Intelligence Surveillance
Act (FISA) memo that he claimed exonerated
him and his campaign in the incredibly
tiresome lib-driven and CNN-run Russian
collusion Bolshoi.
So, what did Trump opine upon last Tuesday?
Well, he somewhat shifted gears on challenges
facing the country, telepromptering about the
need to ramp up and spend some Benjamins
on fixing the incredible deterioration plaguing
our country’s infrastructure.
Curious, but in Cali, where potholes and
gridlock abound, the outgoing Governor
Moonbeam, whom I like, by the by, is still
doggedly promoting his bullet train boondoggle.
Which apparently sends us on some train to
San Francisco. For what end, don’t know. We
can jump on a plane at LAX and get to SF in
45 minutes, for whatever reason one needs to
visit the City by the Bay. Never been there.
I have a novel idea. How about we spend a
heck of a lot less money and turn the bullet
train due south, sending illegal immigrants and
their brethren back home? No charge to them?
Under the wall, over the wall, who cares?
And I say this as a very proud Mexi-Talian.
Mom’s family legally showed up here more
than 100 years ago from Mexico. Prospered,
broke no laws that I am aware of and included
in their posse the great actor Ramon Navarro,
who played the title character in the iconic
movie Ben Hur in the 1920s.
At one point, Navarro, my great uncle, was
the second-highest-paid actor in Hollywood.
So, while the stock market tanked last week
and they played some football game that I
watched little of Sunday, all is still good in
America, eh? •
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