Ryan helps GOP farm for gridlock in return to Capitol

>>> having described his temporary boss as inarticulate, vice presidential candidate paul ryan returned to the scene of his greatest impact earlier today, a gridlocked and dysfunctional congress. mr. ryan showed he's learned absolutely nothing while being away as he joined with fellow republicans who at this very moment are seeking to undo the waivers requested by states to provide more flexibility in getting people off welfare and back to work. congressman peter welch is a democrat from vermont and the chief deputy whip. good afternoon.

>> good afternoon.

>> congressman, mitt romney and paul ryan say this president is divisive, but what is this welfare vote apart from yet another attempt to isolate and divide the working poor from those lords of the universe who are captured on tape in florida with mr. romney?

>> well, it's part of the big lie approach on the campaign. this waiver was requested by republican governors. bill clinton really answered this, and it was about giving more flexibility to allow more people to work and get their way off welfare. this was tightening, not loosening the work requirement in welfare, and the ryan campaign, the romney campaign is basically making a bogus claim and trying to run on the big lie .

>> indeed. now, paul ryan and house speaker john boehner repeatedly claim the mantle of courage when it comes to facing the tough issues. take a listen, sir.

>> we are not going to duck these tough issues.

>> others want to kick the can down a road.

>> we will not duck the tough issues. we will lead.

>> my colleagues behind me know how serious i feel about stopping this business of kicking the can down the road.

>> okay. so today when speaker boehner was asked about a bill to help america's struggling farmers, we just knew that he would not, he would never kick the can down the road. take a listen.

>> we will deal with the farm bill after the election. when we get back, we will deal with the issue of the farm bill .

>> mr. welsh, can you think of anyone who is calling for this pretense and since mr. boehner has seven weeks off, shouldn't he audition for a broadway farce?

>> he should, and he's doing a gro good job. i don't think he'll have to audition, they will just sign him up. there's two things, this is a failure. this is the' first time in the history of the house of representatives where the leadership has refused to bring it up for a vote. first time in history. second, what's going on here is that after the fog of political combat for 3 1/2 years where mitch mcconnell summarized the republican strategy which was to fight for failure, to make his first agenda to make obama a one-term president. we're starting to assign responsibility and the republicans are beginning to pay the price. they have done nothing.

>> indeed. now, house democrats today sent a letter to speaker boehner begging him, begging him not to adjourn for seven weeks since there's so much that could be done. but i have to assume that in his mind, obstructionism works just as well from his home state as it does from capitol hill , so he's not going to do anything about that, is he?

>> that's exactly right. he's giving us the choice to stay here and get nothing done, that's the choice he's denying us now. we're to go home and get nothing done. as i say, the bottom line is they have fought for failure. the american people were fed up with all of us and rightly so because from their perspective they want us to do our job and when we don't even vote on a farm bill , you can't defend not even bothering to vote, the strategy that they have used successful to now, the american people have caught up with them and they're assigning responsibility for that gridlock government, where it belongs, and that's with the republican leadership.

>> speaker boehner is really quite the record breaker. he's helped us downgrade the u.s. economy and now he's done what he's done in failing to vote the farm bill .

>> well, that's right. the do-nothing congress that truman ran against they passed close to 800 bills. the do-nothing congress that boehner has presided over, it's like 150, 160 bills and a lot of those are very important post office namings.

>> congressman peter welch from vermont,