Both here on Power Line and elsewhere Speaker Paul Ryan and congressional Republicans in general have been taking heavy weather for the sorry outcome of the omnibus budget that passed last week. Ryan went on Bill Bennett’s radio show on Tuesday to tell his side of the story, which involves the fact that he inherited from outgoing Speaker John Boehner an unfavorable budget framework, as well as some of the tradeoffs involved (especially defense spending). He also laid out the argument I’ve heard elsewhere, which is that he needed to “clear the decks” so that a real return to “regular order” budgeting next year will be possible. You may or may not be persuaded, but the contrast with Boehner is fairly plain, I think.

Read the article “Paul Ryan: The Bloated Omnibus Budget That was Just Passed Won’t Be Business as Usual Next Year” on powerlineblog.com.