The U.S. Constitution only states, “The House of Representatives shall (choose) their Speaker and other Officers”.
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This last condition has proven a sticking point with the 40-odd members of the House’s Freedom Caucus, whose determination to call for the equivalent of a vote of no confidence for Speaker John Boehner led to Boehner’s decision to step down.
Flores said the study committee’s 17-member steering committee “overwhelmingly” voted to endorse Ryan after the House Ways and Means chairman met with the entire group Wednesday.
“I want to save entitlements and I want to save Social Security, but I’m going to do it in a different way”, he said.
Freedom Caucus member Rep. Mo Brooks, R-Ala., says Wisconsin Rep. Paul Ryan’s record on immigration is troubling.
A few names have been tossed into the ring, but when majority leader and heir apparent, Kevin McCarthy dropped out of the race on October 8, it added even more uncertainty to the future of the House leadership.
Congresswoman Lummis says she believes Ryan will end up winning the support of all three groups.
“My biggest reservation about Paul Ryan is that he has the absolutely worst record on border security of any Republican in the House of Representatives”, Brooks said Thursday on the “The Laura Ingraham Show”. With 247 House Republicans, a united Freedom Caucus can keep GOP support for a bill on the House floor to around 207 votes – short of the 218 needed for a majority in the chamber. “I like Thomas Jefferson better”, said Rep. Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina, a Freedom Caucus leader who said that Jefferson created the rule.
House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., told reporters Thursday that Ryan is someone “who knows the territory, knows the issues, so that’s helpful”. Given that Ryan firmly and repeatedly refused to run for the position and only reconsidered after massive pressure from his colleagues, that seems the likeliest explanation-these conditions let Ryan avoid the speakership but put the blame on the House Freedom Caucus.
While Ryan appeared to have gathered sufficient support to win next week, he has no guarantees, as lawmakers have several days in which to change their minds.
The statement said no consensus was reached on Ryan’s preconditions for serving, but expressed confidence in a positive resolution to lingering concerns about them.
In their own written statement, the Freedom Caucus praised Ryan as “a policy entrepreneur who has developed conservative reforms dealing with a wide variety of subjects”.
Even as Ryan has pursued many Republican goals – including cutting business tax rates, repealing the estate tax and replacing the Affordable Care Act, also known as Obamacare – he also has supported allowing 11 million undocumented immigrants to eventually become US citizens, a stance strongly opposed by most House Republicans. Obviously Ryan’s got a problem with that, but his spokesman said yesterday that he’s not demanding the end to such motions altogether. If Ryan is to take this messy job, he doesn’t want continuation of an intra-party schism.
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The 45-year-old has made it clear he will only run if it becomes clear he can unify the House Republicans as he meets with the three major House caucuses whose endorsement he needs to run for Speaker. The victor must be backed by a majority of those who vote; lawmakers who designate themselves as “present” wouldn’t count.
