Paul Ryan On Budget Deliberations: ‘I Think The Process Stinks’

In this photo taken June 9, 2015, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., answers questions during an interview with The Associated Press in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. First, give pr... In this photo taken June 9, 2015, House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wis., answers questions during an interview with The Associated Press in his office on Capitol Hill in Washington. First, give presidents the power to strike trade deals. Then overturn President Barack Obama’s health care law, overhaul the tax code and reform welfare. And someday? Figure out whether to run for president. Call it the New Ryan Plan, a map not just to big changes in the nation’s fiscal policy, but to Paul Ryan’s future. It points the ninth-term congressman and chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee away from the presidential campaign trail and into the thicket of policy that he says will set the country on better financial footing. The path likely emerges at a familiar decision point _ whether to run for president _ somewhere down the road. Ryan, 45, says he might decide to take that step, someday. (AP Photo/Molly Riley) MORE LESS
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Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) — who is expected to be elected Speaker of the House later this week — trashed the process by which congressional leaders cobbled the big fiscal budget deal that will raise the debt ceiling and fund the government for two years.

“About the process, I can say this. I think this process stinks,” Ryan said on MSNBC Tuesday. “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.”

The current Ways and Means chairman said he was withholding judgement on the contents of the deal itself until he had more of an opportunity to look at it on paper, but distanced himself from how the agreement came about, behind closed doors with with a series of grave fiscal deadlines looming.

“We are up against a deadline, that’s unfortunate. But going forward we can’t be doing the people’s business — as a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward,” Ryan said.

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Notable Replies

  1. “I think this process stinks,” Ryan said.

    But under the circumstances, I’ll take it.

  2. Avatar for mcbain mcbain says:

    The process stinks primarily because you and your ilk live in a fantasy world where you think you can get everything you want and compromise is forbidden.

  3. …as a conference, we should have been meeting months ago to discuss these things to have a unified strategy going forward.

    You guys did meet months ago. You came up with a unified strategy: don’t do anything and hope Obama caves. The same strategy you have tried for years and has failed every time. Don’t try to claim you didn’t know the deadline was coming.

  4. “…to have a unified strategy going forward…”

    For that, you have to compromise a bit…which your caucus has shown a complete unwillingness to do. So…fuck you.

  5. “And by “people” I mean “rich people”.” Ryan added.

Continue the discussion at forums.talkingpointsmemo.com

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