# The House should elect a speaker who is not a congressman. **URL:** \ **Category:** Politics & Elections\ **Created:** [October 22, 2015, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438 "2015-10-22T08:43:46Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![BobLibDem](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/boblibdem/32/3149_2.png) [@BobLibDem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BobLibDem)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 2:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/21 "2015-10-22T14:24:55Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > No. It didn’t take it away from anyone. You’re trying to find hypocrisy where none exists. Plenty of companies offer family leave, mine among them. Some states have a form of family leave too. He isn’t trying to end that. There are enough reasons to dislike Ryan’s politics without resorting to somethings that makes for a silly meme. There’s more to it than just the FMLA. Ryan consistently votes for the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the 99%. His attitude is “I got mine, fuck you”. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 2:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/22 "2015-10-22T14:27:29Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > There’s more to it than just the FMLA. Ryan consistently votes for the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the 99%. His attitude is “I got mine, fuck you”. True enough. He is a Republican after all. ---
**Author:** ![Malden\_Capell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/malden_capell/32/5274_2.png) [@Malden\_Capell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malden_Capell)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 10:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/23 "2015-10-22T22:25:50Z")
> [@Flyer](#): > > Wow. Doesn’t anybody (A) remember recent threads, or (B) do a simple search? I did a thread like this just a couple weeks ago. > > [Outsiders for Speaker of the House - Politics & Elections - Straight Dope Message Board](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=771596) Excuse me, passed me by ☹ no need to be so rude.:mad: ---
**Author:** ![adaher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/dec6dc/32.png) [@adaher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/adaher)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 10:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/24 "2015-10-22T22:35:12Z")
> [@BobLibDem](#): > > There’s more to it than just the FMLA. Ryan consistently votes for the interests of the wealthy at the expense of the 99%. His attitude is “I got mine, fuck you”. He’s trying to keep entitlements from going insolvent, which hurts the middle class and poor much more than the wealthy. The wealthy will be fine if Medicare has to start rationing and SS pays out 75% of promised benefits. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/25 "2015-10-22T23:22:16Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > He grew up as a common person. He wasn’t born into wealth. C’mon, Ryan’s family owns a [construction company](http://www.ryancentral.com/). I doubt there were any nights where the Ryan family was worrying about how to pay the rent. ---
**Author:** ![hajario](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hajario/32/171_2.png) [@hajario](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/hajario)\ **Post date:** [October 22, 2015, 11:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/26 "2015-10-22T23:55:25Z")
> [@Little\_Nemo](#): > > C’mon, Ryan’s family owns a [construction company](http://www.ryancentral.com/). I doubt there were any nights where the Ryan family was worrying about how to pay the rent. For fuck sake, Ryan’s great grandfather started that company in the 1880s. He wasn’t a part of it. In fact, Ryan’s father died when Ryan was 16. He received Social Security until he was 18, saved from that and put himself through college. > **[Paul Ryan](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paul_Ryan)** > > Paul Davis Ryan (born January 29, 1970) is an American politician who served as the 54th speaker of the United States House of Representatives from 2015 to 2019. A member of the Republican Party, he was the vice presidential nominee in the 2012 election with Mitt Romney, losing to incumbent President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden. > Ryan is a native of Janesville, Wisconsin, and graduated from Miami University in 1992. He spent five years working for Congress in Washington, D.C., ... ---
**Author:** ![Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/do_not_taunt/32/2968_2.png) [@Do\_Not\_Taunt](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Do_Not_Taunt)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 4:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/27 "2015-10-23T04:07:59Z")
I think Ryan is about to get rolled. He basically said, “Here are my preconditions for running for Speaker. If you don’t like 'em, fuck y’all, I’ll stay in Ways and Means.” The House Freedom Caucus came back with, “No,” and now that he has no leverage left at all, he’s running for Speaker after all. This means a) his whole I’ll-do-it-for-the-good-of-the-party-but-I’d-rather-not was an act, and everyone knows it, which costs him leverage and b) he has no protection against being Boehnered. He may get a short honeymoon, but long-term, I can’t see him doing any better at this than Boehner did. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [October 23, 2015, 9:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438/28 "2015-10-23T09:02:31Z")
> [@hajario](#): > > For fuck sake, Ryan’s great grandfather started that company in the 1880s. He wasn’t a part of it. In fact, Ryan’s father died when Ryan was 16. He received Social Security until he was 18, saved from that and put himself through college. The company was started in 1884. I don’t see why you feel that helps your argument. It just shows that Ryan’s family has been well off for several generations. The company still exists. It describes itself as one of the largest companies in the country in its field, talking about how it’s done business in twenty-five states and handles multi-million dollar jobs. This isn’t some family-run pizza place we’re talking about. This is a major corporation. And Ryan does have a connection with it. He started working for the family business when he graduated from college. He worked there until he decided to go into politics. Ryan’s other job was managing the Ryan-Hutter Investment Partnership, an investment fund that his grandmother started up. It’s true that Ryan’s father died when Ryan was sixteen. And losing a parent is a genuine hardship for any child. But Ryan’s father left a half-million dollar estate behind to his family. Ryan collected Social Security benefits because he was a minor whose parent had died. But he didn’t need the money to support himself so he was able to put it all in the bank and use it to pay for his tuition. So Ryan didn’t “put himself” through college; his college education was paid for by a government program. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-house-should-elect-a-speaker-who-is-not-a-congressman/735438.md?page=1)