Paul
Ryan fires chaplain for praying for fair taxes
Republican Speaker of the House Paul
Ryan is under fire after it was reported he forced out House
Chaplain Patrick Conroy from his post, allegedly over a recent prayer that
called for—get this—a fairer tax code.
According to The Hill,
which first reported the story, Conroy makes it clear in his resignation
announcement, which came last week but was not revealed until Thursday, that it
was submitted at the behest of Ryan.
"As you have requested, I
hereby offer my resignation as the 60th Chaplain of the United States House of
Representatives," Conroy's letter to the Speaker reads. Conroy has been
the chaplain of the U.S. House of Representatives since 2011.
While an aide to Ryan told one reporter that Conroy was not
asked to resign over any one specific prayer, Democratic lawmakers are
demanding more answers.
EDITOR’S NOTE: They’re not going to get any since House
Republicans voted down a resolution to look further into the reasons for
firing Father Conroy. – W. Collette
Ryan, of course, has made a career
out of using a choir boy facade and faux budgetary genius to mesmerize the
press while doing everything possible to enrich the already wealthy and attack
the poor and working class.
But as Margaret Hartmann writes for New York Magazine,
"Under the Trump administration, we've learned that [Ryan] is willing
to shrug off racist remarks from the
president, and has no problem enabling attacks on the rule of law.
“But one thing that will not be
tolerated in Ryan's House is a man of God suggesting that tax cuts should be
fair to all Americans."
The accusation that Conroy was
ousted over a prayer he delivered in November of 2017—in
which he hoped that the result of the GOP tax bill then being debated would
"guarantee that there are not winners and losers under new tax laws, but
benefits balanced and shared by all Americans"—has not been confirmed, but
reporting from Capitol Hill suggests the prayer was upsetting to Ryan.
Vanity
Fair reports:
While one source claimed that
"some of the more conservative evangelical Republicans didn't like that
the Father had invited a Muslim person to give the opening prayer," others
offered a more compelling reason: Ryan "took issue with a prayer on the
House floor that could have been perceived as being critical of the G.O.P. tax
cut bill."
According to a Democratic aide,
Conroy's ouster was "largely driven by [the] speech on the tax bill that
the speaker didn’t like."
AshLee Strong, a
spokesperson for the speaker, declined to explain the personnel decision,
noting only Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi and her office "were fully read
in and did not object."
