GOP lawmakers hope Ryan will lead them out of weeks of disarray and point them toward accomplishments they can highlight in next year’s elections.
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Ryan, a 16-year veteran of Congress who was reluctantly lured into the race for speaker, has promised as speaker to empower committee chairmen and rank-and-file members, and to reform House rules. The full House will vote on installing him in the job on Thursday. “We are turning the page”.
Ryan, R-Wis., was his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee and is considered a telegenic spokesman for conservative priorities.
The extra spending provided for in the agreement would be financed by a potpourri of savings including sales of millions of gallons from the nation’s Strategic Petroleum Reserve, curbs on Medicare reimbursements to hospitals and doctors and tougher federal debt collection, including allowing federal agents to call people’s cell phones.
Most of the “no” votes were from Republicans, but 79 GOP lawmakers voted for approval.
Outgoing Speaker John Boehner, facing the prospect of a revolt from conservatives, surprised the political world last month by announcing his resignation from the GOP leadership and from Congress.
“Ryan is a really a thought leader for the Republican Party”.
Ryan sounded an optimistic note. We are going to move forward. We are going to unify. Boehner had said he wanted to “clean the barn” of politically messy issues so Ryan, 45, could make a fresh start.
He easily dispatched his sole opponent, Florida Rep. Daniel Webster, the choice of a group of hard-core conservatives, winning 200 votes to Webster’s 43.
Most of the 43 detractors, however, are expected to support Ryan when the speaker vote occurs on the floor Thursday.
It would trim federal subsidies to companies that sell crop insurance to farmers, creating an uproar among agriculture-state lawmakers.
The accord also became a punching bag for GOP presidential candidates, including Sens.
The House Wednesday took one other major step with huge implications for Ryan’s speakership.
Ryan was one of just 79 Republicans to vote for the measure Wednesday, which passed with unanimous Democratic support.
Ryan did not oblige.
Asked what he thought of the talks behind reaching the deal, Ryan told reporters, “I think the process stinks”.
“Wednesday’s nomination vote comes hours before the House is set to vote on a controversial fiscal deal negotiated by Boehner that would increase government spending by $80 billion through September 2017 and raise the federal debt limit”.
President Barack Obama praised the budget deal and urged both parties to “come together to pass the agreement without delay”.
That exercise could bring its own mess of troubles, including fights over everything from Planned Parenthood to the environment as conservatives try to attach favored policy provisions to must-pass legislation.
A reluctant candidate for speaker, Ryan was drafted by party leaders only after Boehner’s heir apparent, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, took himself out of the running.
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Ryan, the 45-year-old chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, said in a statement the deal has “some good, a few bad, and a few ugly” but will ultimately “go a long way toward relieving the uncertainty hanging over us …”
