Paul Ryan’s Parenting Problem
While some, most notably John Boehner, have said Mr. Ryan would be able to be an effective speaker and a dad, others have been skeptical. The biggest issue seems to involve fundraising — will Paul Ryan have time to raise the money the party needs if he also wants to be home for dinner? “Speaker John Boehner raised $50 million,”said Representative Tim Huelskamp, Republican of Kansas. “The speaker has to work more than 40 hours a week.”
These reservations aren’t surprising — many people think high-level government office is simply incompatible with being a very involved parent. But it’s not running the government that would keep Mr. Ryan from his kids — it’s raising the money to keep Republicans in office, many of whom actually oppose running the government.
This debate raises the intriguing possibility that politicians might be able to tuck their kids into bed if they didn’t have to spend large portions of their time convincing wealthy people to donate vast sums of money to their campaigns. Unfortunately for Mr. Ryan and everybody else, we’re not likely to explore that possibility anytime soon.