» Ryan, Trump:
Paul Ryan says he has no deal to tread lightly when Donald Trump stumbles
House Speaker Paul Ryan defends himself against accusations that he has been too tepid in his criticism of President Donald Trump.
House Speaker Paul Ryan defended himself Friday against accusations that he has been too tepid in his criticism of President Donald Trump. “My focus is on getting things done,” he said. “It’s not a Faustian bargain. It’s doing my job trying to make a difference in the world.”
The Janesville Republican made his comments during a free-wheeling, 30-minute back-and-forth with reporters and editors of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel.
In a Sunday interview with the New York Times Magazine, former Milwaukee talk-radio host Charlie Sykes, a long-time supporter of Ryan’s, said the speaker had made a “Faustian bargain” in pursuit of tax cuts.
“I want the president to succeed because I think if he succeeds the country succeeds,” Ryan said. “We have a shared agenda that we believe will improve people’s lives and fix big problems in this country. That’s our goal.
“I know there are people on the left who would love nothing more than us fighting ourselves every single day. And I know Charlie (Sykes) really doesn’t like the president and he would love to see me join him going after him every single day.”
Ryan said his job as House speaker is “to make sure we actually get things done, that we fix problems. So I’m not really interested in spending my days having rhetorical fights. I’m more interested in doing my job, getting things done.”
Ryan touched on a range of issues, including overhauling the tax code, securing the southern border and dealing with the debt ceiling.
“We will not default,” he said. “We have a lot of options on our plate.”
Ryan called tax reform “critical for economic growth.” He sketched out a broad plan that included shrinking the number of tax rates from seven to three and maintaining deductions for charitable donations and mortgage interest.
He also proposed doubling the standard deduction and indicated he was interested in doing away with the deduction for state and local income taxes.
Ryan said corporate tax rates need to be lowered to enable companies to compete with overseas competitors.
The last time the country overhauled the tax code was in 1986, the same year that Ryan said he got his driver’s license. “It’s high time we do this,” he said. Ryan said there was a need for physical barriers along some segments of the U.S.-Mexico border. He said he didn’t believe there would be a government shutdown over the issue as the Trump administration seeks funding for 74 miles of new wall.
“The way I look at this issue is, conditions on the ground should determine what we need to do to secure the border,” he said.
He also called for a legislative fix to the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, which was put in place by President Barack Obama’s administration and affects around 800,000 young, undocumented immigrants.
Ryan said a lot of kids under the program “don’t know any home other than this one.”
Texas and nine other states have set a Tuesday deadline for the Trump administration to rescind DACA, or they’ll sue in federal court in a bid to end the program.
“I think it’s important that we give people some certainty and peace of mind and I think Congress does need to deal with this,” he said. “And I’d like to think we would be given time to do that. This will take time to fix.”
In the wake of Hurricane Harvey, Ryan said Congress will deal with replenishing the FEMA Disaster Relief fund, and addressing the needs of flood-ravaged areas, including Houston.
On health care, Republicans are stalled in their quest to repeal and replace the Affordable Care Act.
Ryan expressed interest in a proposal floated by Republican U.S. Sens. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina and Bill Cassidy of Louisiana and backed by Gov. Scott Walker. The plan would send billions of dollars in health care funding from Obamacare back to the states in block grants.