Members: Ryan crushed it at the GOP retreat

At the annual GOP retreat last week, the rank-and-file had their first chance to compare the two top leaders in Congress when McConnell of Kentucky and Ryan of Wisconsin gave back-to-back presentations on the 2016 agenda at the Baltimore Marriott Wednesday night.

Ryan, House lawmakers reported, received a thunderous standing ovation after a rousing speech calling on the House and Senate to put forward a bold, conservative agenda they can sell to the public ahead of the November election.

“It was by far the best political speech by a member of the House or Senate that I have ever seen,” said House Intelligence Chairman Devin Nunes, of California.

The speeches marked a pivotal moment for Republican congressional lawmakers, some said later, because it showed a contrast in the visions of both leaders, one born after Woodstock, the other during World War II.

The more subdued but thoughtful McConnell, who is nearly 74, was also inspiring when he addressed the crowd, senators said. He challenged lawmakers to offer a positive and unifying message to voters. But Ryan, who turns 46 in a few weeks, genuinely brought lawmakers to their feet with a “visionary” speech challenging the party to put forward ideas and a “big plan,” even if it has no chance of being signed into law this year by President Obama.

“When you juxtapose our leader against the Senate leader, it’s quite a stark difference,” Rep. Matt Salmon, of Arizona, who was first elected to Congress in 1995, told the Washington Examiner. “I think that everybody in the room, and the senators, whether they wanted to admit it or not, saw it as well. There were clear differences in vision. One is really the old guard, the old way of doing things. The other was a vision of the future.”

House lawmakers said Ryan appealed to them with an upbeat speech calling for abandoning the old leadership style, which often kept legislation off the floor unless it was guaranteed to pass.

“Paul says, who cares?” Salmon said. “That’s not how great ideas come and go. You have to be willing to take the risks that put an idea onto the floor that might fail, and lay out a vision.”

Ryan also garnered praise for proposing the GOP roll out an agenda written by the rank-and-file, not the leadership, that tackles conservative priorities, including tax reform, a replacement for Obamacare and reducing the cost and scope of welfare programs.

“Paul Ryan is a generational change in the speakership and the issues that he brings forth are the issues that unite us, certainly among House Republicans,” said Ways and Means Chairman Kevin Brady, R-Texas.

As Senate leader, McConnell is held back by a 60-vote threshold and cumbersome upper chamber rules that would likely prevent him from following Ryan’s aggressive agenda.

In a meeting with reporters in Baltimore, McConnell acknowledged his 2016 goals are “not going to titillate the public,” but he pledged to try to pass the dozen appropriations measures through the chamber, a major feat that has not been accomplished since 1994. He also promised to take up a budget proposal, which is also a difficult hurdle in the Senate.

McConnell spokesman Don Stewart, who attended the Ryan/McConnell speeches, said the two men offered parallel messages.

“They both say we want to do a budget, they both say we want to have appropriations bills and have a good, solid policy agenda,” Stewart said. “It has nothing to do with personality, it’s just the policy.”

Freshman Republican Sen. Jim Rounds, of South Dakota, rejected claims that Ryan outshone McConnell at the retreat.

The two men are different, but complementary, Rounds said.

Ryan was indeed exciting, Rounds admitted, but the more experienced McConnell was able to offer a big picture view of the political landscape and an understanding of what it takes to accomplish the party’s vision.

“I came away inspired by them both,” Rounds said. “They have different approaches, but both of them, to me, are a necessary part of the process.”