This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2016, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., reportedly met with President-elect Donald Trump Friday about his top agenda items, namely "dismantling Obamacare, securing the border and jump-starting the economy."
If Ryan wanted to do the president-elect, Congress and the country a favor, here is what we hope he said about Obamacare:
Mr. President-elect, we all ran on getting rid of it — in fact, getting rid of all of it. But 20 million or so people are on it. You promised something "terrific" instead, so what is it? You don't have anything specific in mind, you say? Well, then let's do exactly what we said — repeal and replace Obamacare. I've had this plan for years and put it in my "A Better Way" agenda. We should in one fell swoop repeal Obamacare and pass the House plan, with a switch-over date a couple years out. In 2018, our members can run on it, and you will have fulfilled your promise. Democrats? Oh, they'll probably hate it. If the House passes something, there will be a huge fight in the Senate. But that's where you come in. You're the deal-maker, right? So make a deal, and if the Democrats won't budge, we run in 2018, especially against the red-state Democrats, on their refusal to give voters a better health-care plan. Oh, and we'll probably have to bail out insurers to keep them in the plan in the meantime, or else modify existing Obamacare rules so that they can make some profit. And whatever we come up with is going to cost a lot.
——-
Alas, Ryan is pushing a "repeal and dawdle" arrangement that leaves the replacement up in the air and Republicans politically vulnerable in 2018. Maybe Trump talked some sense to Ryan. (We can't believe we actually wrote that sentence, but that's 2016 for you.)
On border security, we hope Ryan leveled with Trump:
——-
We won already! More people are leaving than coming into the country along the Mexican border. The wall would be really expensive, so maybe spend some more to get more surveillance on the border (Isn't that what drones can do?) and some more border agents. But honestly, the problem sort of solved itself. Let's redo the visa system so that we can flag people who overstay. Yup, that's about it. Oh, the murderers running around loose on the streets? The Obama people have already made criminals the priority. There are really a small number of criminals who were not incarcerated or deported. A lot of those are nonviolent drug offenders. The best thing we could do is clear out the huge backlog in the immigration courts so that we can process cases quickly. Now here's an idea: You want "the" Hispanics to love you? Say up front that no "dreamer" who came forward and passed the background check is going to be deported. When we get around to creating a path for legalization — yeah, Ann Coulter and Jeff Sessions are really going to freak — we can put them on it. But you sure don't want pictures of dedicated college kids and soldiers brought here as babies getting shipped back to Mexico. Democrats will be flabbergasted.
——-
Finally, on the economy, we hope Ryan gave Trump an Economics 101 lesson. Beyond that, he could have broken some more news:
About China, Mr. President-elect, it hasn't manipulated its currency in a long time, and the Chinese aren't "killing us," as you like to say. We get cheap stuff from them; they get pieces of paper (cash) and then turn around to finance our debt or otherwise invest in the United States. The trade deficit doesn't have much to do with employment, by the way. And good news — unemployment is around 4.6 percent! What could we do to give the economy a nudge? Well, we do need infrastructure repairs and projects, but we'd better make sure we don't just give rich developers, no disrespect intended, tax breaks or fund a bunch of nonsense projects. Make the governors list two or three top priorities, and we work from that list. Yeah, our schools aren't doing the job, and we've got to really get our workforce up to speed. Hey, if you want to strong-arm people, why not call up chief executives of the Fortune 500 companies and tell them they'd better start sponsoring STEM education, setting up apprenticeship and training programs and putting some of that money repatriated from overseas (from our tax plan) into better wages and benefits. Make them all do it and then make a fuss each time someone agrees to sign on to your plan. It would make great TV.
——-
The chances of this sort of straight talk having occurred are small, we know. But if Ryan was feeling super-responsible, he also could have told Trump point-blank: You have to sell the businesses, or nothing you want to do is going to get done. Now that would have been something — Ryan standing up for the Constitution and for clean government.