“I am encouraged by Paul Ryan’s willingness to run for Speaker and appreciate Paul Ryan’s thoughtful approach to the decision”.
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“We have become the problem”, Mr Ryan said on Tuesday night after tabling his offer. Many of them might have opposed Boehner without ever expecting him to resign – they wanted to be heard by the regime, not to overturn it. Like the dog that caught the auto, a few of them may not even really be sure what a good-enough outcome of their insurgency would be, and they may be looking for a way out; Ryan is giving them that way.
But other House Republicans who want Ryan to take the gavel said members of the Freedom Caucus are isolating themselves.
RYAN: But we need to do this as a team and it needs to include fixes that ensure that we do not experience constant leadership challenges and crises.
Caucus co-leader Justin Amash said the group still supports its candidate for Speaker, Representative Daniel Webster of Florida.
Ryan, the party’s 2012 vice presidential candidate, said on Tuesday he would consider becoming speaker, but only if fractious Republicans unite behind him, among other conditions. Republican leaders then began urging Ryan to take on the position and use his influence to unify the fractured party.
The only debt-related measure set for House floor action for now is one to be voted on Wednesday requiring the Treasury to continue to borrow to pay the principal and interest on certain obligations if the debt exceeds the statutory limit.
But perhaps the most important reaction was that of the Freedom Caucus, the group of roughly 40 members that brought down Speaker John Boehner with a threatened no-confidence vote and stymied his would-be heir Kevin McCarthy by endorsing a longshot candidate.
Boehner said he doesn’t know what Plan B would be if Ryan doesn’t get those conditions met and decides not to run.
“Has Paul Ryan been for a strong national security, strong on morals and family, and has he been for limited for government?” But moderate Republicans, like Charlie Dent of Pennsylvania, say Ryan told his caucus he won’t bargain to win the speaker’s gavel. “What I am most anxious about … is an accident, and accidents can happen when you play this last-minute brinkmanship game”, Lew said.
“You can’t do the job 9 to 5, Monday through Friday”, he said.
“I did announce to the members that the conference election for speaker will be next Wednesday”. He won’t give up his family time so will spend less time on the road fundraising than past speakers. “And if I’m not a unifying force, that will be fine as well”.
Ryan has drawn fire from the right for his support of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) when federal funds were used to bailout the financial industry in 2008. “He doesn’t have a moral obligation to get Republicans out of the rubble they’ve created for themselves”, Wehner said.
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“Well, that would deny him the 218 votes to become speaker”.
