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Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI) in February 2012, lamenting the fact that the battle over the payroll tax cut (which he opposed) had hurt Republicans and helped President Obama:

"I think the idea of running against a dysfunctional, do-nothing Congress is part of his campaign strategy," Ryan said.

Ryan, of course, blamed Democrats for the paralysis. Apparently, he thinks it's their fault and their fault alone that Congress has sunk to record low ratings and that Americans rank it the worst congress ever.

But that's nonsense. Democrats haven't forced Paul Ryan and his fellow House Republicans to spend all their time sucking up to the tea party. Democrats didn't make the GOP play games with the debt ceiling or force them to repeatedly try to defund Planned Parenthood. Voting nearly three dozen times to repeal Obamacare wasn't a Democratic idea. Republicans were the ones who came up with the brilliant idea of spending taxpayer money to mount a legal defense against marriage equality. And if I recall correctly, it was Paul Ryan himself who convinced Republicans to vote in favor of ending Medicare as we know it while simultaneously lowering Mitt Romney's taxes to 0.82 percent.

You can explain why Congress has gotten so bad in three words: tea party Republicans. And for picking one of their leaders as his running mate, the Obama campaign owes Mitt Romney a big debt of gratitude.

Posted: 2012-08-17 11:07:25

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