Paul Ryan: It's OK I gave billionaires tax breaks because a secretary got $1.50

Paul Ryan continued the Republican Party’s pathetic campaign to defend the massive tax cuts and giveaways to the ultra-wealthy they passed into law.

The latest attempt involved touting a $1.50 per week pay bump that a high school secretary reported seeing in her paycheck.

Days after thanking the billionaire Koch brothers for helping move the tax scam along, Ryan cited a passage from an Associated Press story on his Twitter account, apparently believing that the extra funds the woman received — which amount to $78 a year — justify the unpopular tax legislation.

The out-of-touch tweet comes just days after the news that the United States will have to raise the debt ceiling earlier than expected thanks to the tax bill.

After the tweet was widely mocked, Ryan deleted it. But the Internet never forgets.

The government will bring in less revenue than expected because the bill — passed with only Republican votes and signed into law by Donald Trump — handed out those funds to the rich.

“With full control of the House, Senate and White House, Republicans have revealed their contempt for fiscal responsibility and their utter incompetence in governing,” House Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi noted at the time of the announcement.

Wealthy figures like Donald Trump, Ryan, and Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin will disproportionately benefit, rather than average Americans. The legislation was drafted in secret, behind closed doors with Republican leaders working in concert with lobbyists to carve out legislation that would weigh heavily in favor of their interests.

Nonetheless, Republicans have indicated that they intend to campaign on the tax cuts for this fall’s midterm elections, hoping the legislation can help them in turning back the blue wave of voters dying to vote against the Trump agenda.

Republicans have already lost statewide races in Alabama, New Jersey, and Virginia, and face an electoral landscape in 2018 where a record number of Republican congressmen have quit months in advance.

Apparently, $1.50 a week is the strongest justification Republicans can muster for an unpopular tax law that tilts things in favor of the top one percent while loading up the country with debt.

That isn’t a good omen.