Ryan Is A Bright Guy. Don't Commit To Anything But Doing A Good Job!

Ryan says he has ‘no idea’ how long he will be House speaker

Posted on November 16, 2015 by Tribune News Service

WASHINGTON (TNS) — House Speaker Paul Ryan, after two weeks on the job, said he has “no idea” how long he may lead the House, committing only to the 14 months left in the current Congress during an interview on CBS’s “60 Minutes.”

No matter how long he keeps the job, the Wisconsin Republican said he is willing to risk losing the job in pursuit of major policy initiatives, including tax and entitlement measures. Ryan also said in the interview that aired Sunday that he and President Barack Obama could find common ground on some issues.

As for his own future, Ryan portrayed an uncertainty that belies his otherwise smooth start in the House’s top job. Given the chaos after Speaker John Boehner announced his resignation, a short speakership for Ryan could once again embroil the Republican Party.

“I was just planning on serving out my tenure as Ways and Means chair and then going, finding out something else to do with my life,” he said in the interview recorded last week in Janesville, Wisconsin, his hometown. “I really don’t know how long this is going to last. This wasn’t something I was planning on doing in the first place.”

Ryan may have removed himself from much of the minutiae of a tax overhaul when he gave up the Ways and Means chairmanship, but he said he still intends to work toward “dramatically” simplifying the tax code.

Ryan said House Republicans as a conference have not yet decided whether to back raising the retirement age to be eligible for full Social Security and Medicare benefits.

“I have always believed, and I’ve been public about this for many years, for younger people, when they age, we should change the retirement age to reflect longevity,” he said, according to a CBS transcript. “And the good news on these issues is that if we reform them for the next generation now, we can guarantee … that people in or near retirement don’t have any changes in their benefits.”

Though he already has said he would not work with Obama on changing immigration law, Ryan said he’s willing to cooperate with the president on other issues such as highways, funding the government and tax policy. “Those are three things that will produce certainty in this economy in the next few months. Let’s go do that,” he said.

–Kate Ackley
CQ-Roll Call