Rep. Paul Ryan will tell Republicans on Thursday that he’s ready to “begin the process of healing” from the infighting that has plagued the party in recent years, according to excerpts obtained by the Washington Examiner.
Ryan, who didn’t even want the job originally, is now “all in” and ready to move the House GOP into a new era and away from the last few fractious years.
“We have nothing to fear from honest differences honestly stated,” he’ll say, according to an excerpt. “If you have ideas, let’s hear them. A greater clarity between us can lead to a greater charity among us.”
Ryan will call on members to “rise to the occasion,” beyond the day-to-day conflicts that have erupted in the GOP conference.
The House will vote for the next Speaker around 9 a.m. in a live quorum call, after which Ryan will also tell the House that he wants to put the concerns of working families front and center of the House’s agenda.
Ryan was elected speaker-designate on Wednesday with 200 GOP votes. Many of the 43 conservatives who voted for alternative candidate Daniel Webster, R-Fla., said they are planning to switch their vote to Ryan, assuring him at least a simple House majority of approximately 218 votes required to win.
Ryan has agreed to take the helm of the House after spending two weeks rejecting calls to run for speaker.
“I get that he was reluctant, but when Paul Ryan makes a decision to move forward, he makes the decision,” Rep. Mario Diaz-Balart, R-Fla., told the Washington Examiner. “He is all in.”
Ryan, 45, has long been the first choice to replace Boehner, who is 20 years his senior, but he had to be talked into it. Boehner led the list of lawmakers pleading with Ryan to run for the post after Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., dropped out after receiving only lukewarm support.
Boehner praised Ryan on Wednesday in a parting interview with reporters.
“He’s an innovative thinker who is focused on giving more Americans more opportunities to achieve the American dream,” Boehner said. “He’s got the skill set to do this job.”
But Ryan, who will be one of the youngest ever elected speaker, has hardly been tested as a leader. He’s spent his years in the House as a budget and tax policy expert, heading both the Budget and Ways and Means Committees.
He’ll have to learn leadership quickly. The GOP has been engaged in increasingly intense infighting between its majority and a significant faction of conservatives who use their leverage to block key legislation and threaten to depose the leadership.
Rep. Raul Labrador, R-Idaho, who is a member of the conservative House Freedom Caucus, said Wednesday that conservatives would afford Ryan a grace period of just a few months. Ryan won their support after pledging he’d work on changing the House rules to give them a larger say in legislation.
“If he keeps the promises that he’s made, and he’s made them pretty publicly on all these different issues, I don’t think he’s going to have to worry about anything,” Labrador said.
Ryan shot to prominence in 2012 when Mitt Romney tapped him to run as his vice president. When the two lost decisively that year, Ryan was all too happy to return to his budget books and the relative obscurity of the House hallways.
Now that he’s been tapped again for a top job, he’ll be second in line to be president of the United States, rather than the first in line as he would have been if he had been elected Romney’s vice president.
Ryan has acknowledged that becoming speaker would effectively kill any chance he could ever successfully run for the White House given the often abysmal approval ratings typically suffered by House speakers. The last one to get around that obstacle was James K. Polk, who was elected president in 1845 after serving four years as House speaker, Boehner noted Wednesday.
“I think he recognizes that,” Boehner said of Ryan.
