And if a new speaker doesn’t have the clout to push this through quickly, we’ll know, alas, that we’re in for more maddening gridlock.
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One is an extreme ideological divide between the two parties that has produced century-high levels of polarization.
Can any speaker succeed under these conditions? The speaker, majority leader, and, to an extent, committee chairmen have set the legislative agenda and rank-and-file members are expected to follow along.
Ryan had said on multiple occasions that he didn’t want the job, but several prominent Republicans including outgoing House Speaker John Boehner and Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy pressured him to enter the race. And in July, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) called a transportation bill proposed by McConnell (R-Ky.) a “piece of sh-“.
Indeed, Ryan has been a leader in Congress in supporting Trade Promotion Authority (TPA) for the Obama administration, and has favored immigration reform with a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants and the expedited legalization for children of illegal immigrants who attend college. Perhaps Ryan’s street-cred with his GOP colleagues as an “Atlas Shrugged”-toting conservative will enable him to bridge differences between the “governing” and bomb-throwing wings of his party”.
Echoing a sentiment of many Democrats, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-Calif.) yesterday described Ryan as “somebody that we can work with”. Democrats hate his budgets and Medicare proposals, but they don’t hate the author.
While Freedom Caucus members are notoriously autonomous, founding members granted anonymity to discuss the internal deliberations told CQ Roll Call the nine-member board led the HFC to adopt a unified strategy. Not so with Republican Ryan. Columnist Jay Bookman is right on the money: “Betrayal, outrage and fear drive their email fundraising; it is how they draw ratings points and Internet clicks, it is how they get themselves on Fox News”. What makes Ryan so important is his effort to get the Republican Party to embrace entitlement reform.
Ryan “was able to unify diverse forces in the Republican conference this week”. “Raising the budget caps, I gotta think, would run into a lot of resistance, for me in particular”, he said. Among them was the support of the House Freedom Caucus, of which Mark Meadows is a member. “This is the best the Republican establishment can do; it’s just not good enough”. We reserve the right to edit a comment that is quoted or excerpted in an article. Paul Ryan-he’s the guy. Could he be wrong? “And we can show the country what a commonsense conservative agenda looks like”, Ryan said in the letter.
Ryan in talking with the caucus members reportedly agreed to address their concerns including committee leadership assignments and legislation from rank-and-file members not getting more consideration. While he’ll oppose that approach, and noted Ryan voted against it last time, the Florida Republican said no one should blame Ryan for the struggle to avoid an economic crisis.
The hard-line House Freedom Caucus isn’t going away.
Early indications of a significant change with Ryan are not encouraging to constitutionalists. There are real questions about whether the House GOP caucus is governable right now under any speaker.
At the same time, he partnered with Democratic Senator Patty Murray in 2013 on a budget compromise that averted fiscal calamity by focusing on finding bipartisan common ground.
But soon after that, Congress must pass a funding bill to keep the government running after December 11.
That will challenge the unity of the GOP caucus.
A few conservatives are concerned about Mr. Ryans reluctance to fight for the speakers job, questioning whether he might prefer they withhold their support. Ryan’s critics might not agree with him on every tactical decision, but they recognize his sincerity and his commitment. “Good policy is good politics”.
Ryan also will have to learn the art of using both carrots and sticks to enforce discipline in this caucus.
Rep. Paul Ryan officially announced on Thursday that he would seek to become the next House speaker.
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“Paul’s a uniquely capable communicator and it will be an asset for us to have his ability to frame the issues that we all care about”, said GOP Rep. Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania. “It’s like interviewing a maid for a job and she says, ‘I don’t clean windows, ‘” Rep. Matt Salmon (R-Ariz.), told the Hill.
