House Speaker Paul Ryan’s (R-WI) “strategy for avoiding a government shutdown is taking shape, with his leadership team seeking a clean break from the divisive intraparty warfare that plagued John Boehner’s (R-OH) tenure,” The Hill reports.
“GOP leaders on Monday predicted there would be no shutdown over Planned Parenthood funding and made clear that they expect an omnibus package to be approved with Democratic support before money runs out on Dec. 11.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan “struck a confrontational stance with the Obama administration Tuesday, setting the stage for showdowns over domestic spending and national security matters as Congress works to wrap up business for the year,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Ryan’s stance injects suspense into the passage of spending legislation, which already includes agreed upon overall funding levels. Congress late last month reached a deal with the White House boosting spending by $80 billion during the next two years and increasing the federal government’s borrowing limit until mid-March 2017.”
“You know when you ever go to a hotel room or get a rental car that has been smoked? That’s what this smells like.”
— Speaker Paul Ryan, in an interview with NBC News, on the pervasive smell of cigarettes in his new office.
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Paul Ryan’s rise to House speaker “is fanning hopes that a once-in-a-generation tax overhaul might be on the horizon,” Politico reports.
“The Wisconsin Republican who claimed the gavel last week is one of Congress’ preeminent tax experts, an ardent advocate of rewriting the code with lots of ideas on how to do it… But now Ryan has far more power to put the issue on Washington’s agenda — and the latest budget deal between congressional leaders and the White House should give him ample room to launch his speakership without being distracted by constant battles over funding the government and raising the debt limit.”
Speaker Paul Ryan “has hired eight communications staffers as he builds what he promises to be a large-scale press shop to lead the GOP messaging operation,” Politico reports.
“Ryan has said he’ll spend a lot of time on television communicating the party’s message. He plans to hire upwards of a dozen communications hands.”
House Speaker Paul Ryan, “just days into the job, ruled out prospects for advancing comprehensive immigration legislation at least until the start of 2017, formalizing a promise he had made to conservatives while running for the speakership,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
Wall Street Journal: “Paul Ryan is a small-government conservative who hopes to use innovative policy solutions to make the GOP a big-tent party again.”
“It hasn’t been easy so far. But many colleagues believe Mr. Ryan now will use the House speakership—far more than his predecessor John Boehner has—to highlight his policy ideas and build public support for them. Even if the prospects for passing big, new legislation are dimming in the current Congress, Mr. Ryan, who won the gavel in a House vote today, will have an eye on using his ideas to make the GOP more competitive in national elections, particularly the 2016 presidential contest.”
National Review: “Ryan is well aware of the potential for that distrust to undermine him, and he seemed careful to avoid feeding it on Thursday. When House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) moved to hug the new speaker after presenting him with the gavel, Ryan opted for a cordial handshake, instead — thereby avoiding a politically problematic photo-op.”
“The U.S. House of Representatives elected Republican Paul D. Ryan as the chamber’s 62nd speaker, catapulting one of its youngest members to the top job in hopes that a policy-oriented, fiscal conservative could give the party a fresh start after years of strife,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
“Mr. Ryan built his candidacy on the promise of a more inclusive House, a pledge responding to dissent among the rank and file that the House has been run in a top-down fashion, with members being asked to vote on legislation they had little time to study and little input in developing.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) “was poised to be installed as the 62nd speaker of the House on Thursday, taking the gavel that he never sought to wield from John Boehner, who relinquished it under fire,” the New York Times reports.
“But the personal jubilance and high expectations felt by Mr. Boehner, who was elected in a sweeping Republican takeover of the House in 2011, have been replaced with a grim recognition that Mr. Ryan’s ascent stems not from electoral victory but rather the chaos in the ranks of his party’s sizable majority.”
As expected, House Republicans nominated Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) to be the 62nd speaker of the House, turning to the young chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to replace John Boehner, who was driven into retirement by an angry uprising of conservative hard-liners, the New York Times reports.
Washington Post: “According to a tally announced inside the room, Ryan won support from 200 of the 247-member GOP conference. A House floor vote to select the new speaker is set for Thursday morning, bringing an end to a five-week scramble to find Boehner’s replacement.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI), “expected to become the next speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, threw his support on Wednesday behind a two-year budget deal aimed at averting a default on U.S. government debt next week,” Reuters reports.
“The support could provide a boost for the bill, which is set to reach the House floor for a vote Wednesday, even as far-right Republicans criticize it for increasing spending.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — who is expected to be elected Speaker of the House later this week — criticized the process by which congressional leaders put together a two-year budget deal with the White House, TPM reports.
Said Ryan: “About the process, I can say this. I think this process stinks. This is not the way to do the people’s business and under new management we are not going to do the people’s business this way.”
Politico: “Paul Ryan has been abundantly clear: As speaker of the House, he won’t spend all of his time jetting across the country to keep the National Republican Congressional Committee flush.”
“But far from being concerned, top GOP moneymen believe the Wisconsin Republican will be a major boon financially for the party. The national network he’s amassed as a vice presidential candidate and from coordinating the national party’s spending in presidential elections give him advantages that even the highly prolific John Boehner didn’t enjoy.”
“House Republicans continued to coalesce behind Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as their next speaker Thursday as two influential GOP blocs threw him their support as was widely expected,” the Washington Post reports.
“The moderate Tuesday Group, which has 55 members, backed Ryan by acclamation in a morning session, while the conservative Republican Study Committee, which has more than 170 members, announced its endorsement in the afternoon… Ryan requested both endorsements as part of a three-pronged condition of GOP unity set set out before he formally agreed to serve as speaker. The third prong, the hard-line House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday night Ryan had ‘supermajority’ support in its ranks.”
“Hard-line conservatives cleared a path late Wednesday for Rep. Paul Ryan to become House speaker, heralding a possible end to weeks of Republican leadership turmoil,” the Washington Post reports.
“The decision to support Ryan by the 40-member House Freedom Caucus, which has risen in power and stature since its founding earlier this year, came after the Ways and Means chairman spent much of his day courting its support.”
“However, it was not immediately clear whether that support — which fell short of a formal endorsement — would meet the most challenging condition Ryan set out Tuesday for serving as speaker: unity among all of the House Republican Conference’s warring factions.”
Rick Klein: “It’s an extraordinarily coincidence of timing that has Ryan and Biden – two former foes who squared off for No. 2 three years ago – publicly contemplating roles as potential party saviors. The vice president is not stepping up just yet, yet sounding very much like a man who can’t walk away. The congressman is claiming he’s poised to do just that, even while stepping back squarely into the arena.”
“Ryan is making an argument that he can rescue the Republican Party, though only via his own path forward – a bold statement meant to call out his rivals. Biden is building an argument where only he can salvage the Democratic Party, his rivals notwithstanding. Both men are citing family in motivations and hesitations. But the most important discussions are clearly going on inside their heads at this moment. Ryan and Biden are separated by a quarter century of age and miles of ideology. Both, though, are concerned about futures that are dimmer than their pasts.”
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) delivered “a pitch Tuesday night to run for House speaker and end weeks of GOP chaos as long as Republican lawmakers meet certain conditions for his tenure,” the Washington Post reports.
Said Ryan: “If you can agree to these requests and I can truly be a unifying figure, then I will gladly serve… This is not a job I ever sought. This is not a job I every wanted… I came to the conclusion that this was a dire moment.”
He added: “We need to move from being an opposition party to being a proposition party… Our next speaker has to be a visionary one.”
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Taegan Goddard is the founder of Political Wire, one of the earliest and most influential political web sites. He also runs Political Job Hunt, Electoral Vote Map and the Political Dictionary.
Goddard spent more than a decade as managing director and chief operating officer of a prominent investment firm in New York City. Previously, he was a policy adviser to a U.S. Senator and Governor.
Goddard is also co-author of You Won - Now What? (Scribner, 1998), a political management book hailed by prominent journalists and politicians from both parties. In addition, Goddard's essays on politics and public policy have appeared in dozens of newspapers across the country.
Goddard earned degrees from Vassar College and Harvard University. He lives in New York with his wife and three sons.