Congressman and House Speaker Paul Ryan is retiring. Good riddance.

Ryan has been the golden boy of the GOP for years. They looked at him as an idea man and a fiscal leader. He has been neither.

In 20 years his only idea has been to cut taxes for the very rich and the privatization of Social Security. His dream came true with the tax bill. The rich Koch brothers have rewarded him handsomely. Now he has passed a bill in the house that robs Social Security of its $2.6 trillion surplus to pay for the tax cuts. By the way, Congressman Dave Reichert, R-Auburn, voted for it, too.

This is not the first time they have raided Social Security. But Ryan is still not done. He wants to cut benefits for Social Security and Medicare because he says we cannot afford them. Both are our money. Perhaps if they weren’t pilfered, they would be fine.

He is retiring at age 48 with a pension of $79,000 a year and a no cost health care plan that we should have. Today a lot of Americans are not able to retire until their 70s because they can’t afford it, and Ryan and his crew want to push the age past 65 years for full benefits.

As I said before, good riddance.

– Patti Larson