Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)

Listen To You Tell Me Texas Friday 3/27/17

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So let’s re-cap.

In 2010, after the Democrats in Congress passed Obamacare without a single Republican vote, the Republican leadership said, “Give us back control of the House and we will set about undoing this terrible law.”

Voters responded by giving the Republican party its biggest mid-term win since 1948. The GOP gained 63 seats in the House and re-took control.

Four years later, in 2014, Republicans said, “We need control of the Senate, too. Give us that and we’ll fix this awful Obamacare.”

So voters handed Republicans a nine seat gain in the Senate and control of that chamber.

Still Obamacare remained on the books despite Republicans passing numerous bills to repeal it.

“Well, we need the White House,” said the Republicans. “We just can’t get rid of Obamacare with a Democratic president standing in the way.”

So in 2016 voters confounded every political consultant, pundit and TV talking head and elected the one Republican that no “expert” thought could win.

It was perhaps the most unmistakable political message of all time.

All of that history leads us to the events of this past Friday afternoon. With control of the House, the Senate and the White House at last in Republican hands, House Republicans could not agree on a bill to repeal Obamacare.

Or put another way, House Republicans were again revealed to be incapable of organizing a two-car funeral.

There is plenty of blame to pass around but here are two heaping servings of it.

First is Speaker of the House Paul Ryan. If he could not get his caucus to support the first legislative initiative of a new administration from his own party, he should a.) never have let the bill get as far as it did and, b.) resign the speakership. It’s simple. If you can’t lead, you shouldn’t be in a leadership position.

Second is the House Freedom Caucus. It’s a group of 30 or so Republican members and it includes Congressman Louie Gohmert of Tyler.

The commitment to core conservative principles by this group is all well and good. But with that said, if the Freedom Caucus intends to stand in the way of every measure that does not meet an absolute conservative purity test, nothing will ever get done and Republicans will pay a heavy price.

I have bought and sold radio stations for 26 years now. Not once did I ever get exactly the deal that I wanted. I always wound up paying more than I wanted to pay and I always wound up accepting terms that I didn’t want to accept. It’s called compromise and it’s how you get deals done and keep moving forward.

Just as there is no such thing as a perfect business deal, there is no such thing as a perfect political deal. You’re still expected to perform. Freedom Caucus members need to remember this.

Mr. President, Mr. Speaker, Republicans in Congress: the hour is late and the stakes are high.

It’s time to do the job you promised us you would do.

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