Ryan Says It’s ‘Frustrating’ To Watch Senate Hold Up Bills Passed By House (VIDEO)

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House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) on Wednesday night placed blame on the Senate for Congress’ failure to pass Obamacare repeal or any other major legislation so far this year, arguing that the House has done its job.

Ryan noted that the House has passed more than 300 bills, including legislation to repeal and replace Obamacare, but that most of those bills have yet to move in the Senate. The House did pass a bill to repeal Obamacare, but only after its first attempt failed before reaching the floor. It’s also not clear that the House would have approved any final legislation passed by the Senate, knowing it would head straight to President Donald Trump’s desk.

The speaker said that the Senate is hamstrung by its need to confirm Trump’s nominees and by its filibusters, which Ryan has advocated eliminating.

“Of course I’d like to see them do majority votes on these things,” Ryan said. “They don’t have the votes there for it, that’s the flat-simple answer.”

Watch Ryan’s interview with Hannity via Fox News:

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Notable Replies

  1. Blaming somebody else for something he was supposed to facilitate.
    Who says he’s not Presidential Timber.
    ###Timberrrrrrr

  2. Now, don’t start whining, Paulie. Where’s that Real American sticktoitiveness? Rome wasn’t destroyed in a day.

  3. Avatar for sanni sanni says:

    I can not remember a Speaker of the House who so frequently sounded as if we a passive observer of the political process and not sitting in one of the most powerful political offices in the country. Weak, Paul, weak.

  4. Nice observation; goes along with Trump, who doesn’t seem to think he has to lift one of those tiny fingers to get his way. Also, this Ryan piece makes me think that McConnell’s on a death watch … which really isn’t fair. Getting cretinous Neil Gorsuch on the Court was a far bigger accomplishment than Paulie will ever claim.

  5. I agree he is an extremely weak Speaker. But the observation I am taking away from this is he is once again, knifing McConnell in the back,

    He of course won’t do it in the over the top, brash way the Trump does, but since the keg party for the House, Ryan has been consistently blaming McConnell for everything. Even when McConnell tried to tell his people that the “skinny” repeal was just a mechanism to get to a joint conference with the House, Ryan wasted no time in announcing that the House would pass it as is to avoid such a conference, thus sabotaging McConnell’s efforts.

    I suppose it was inevitable. Ryan has to know he is incompetent, and saw the opening that Trump was making for him to blame all of his inadequacies on McConnell. And he took it.

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