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 If all goes as expected next week, the Wisconsin lawmaker and 2012
Republican vice-presidential nominee will replace John Boehner as
House speaker. In announcing his willingness to seek the job, Ryan
said in a statement to party colleagues:
"I know many of you want to show the country how to fix our tax
code, how to rebuild our military, how to strengthen the safety net,
and how to lift people out of poverty."
Ryan is known among Republicans as a policy expert. He has carved
out well-known positions on tax, budget and social policy that have,
in the past, encountered intra-party conflicts, Democratic
opposition and special-interest lobbying resistance.
At the same time, he partnered with Democratic Senator Patty Murray
in 2013 on a budget compromise that averted fiscal calamity by
focusing on finding bipartisan common ground.
 If he is elected speaker next week, Ryan will be taking the reins at
a similarly crucial fiscal moment, with the added complication of a
2016 presidential campaign in which Republican front-runner Donald
Trump is pushing the party to the right.
"There's probably a honeymoon period," said veteran Republican
Representative Mike Simpson of Ryan's likely tenure in the House's
most powerful post. "But it will be very brief because we've got
some big issues."
Ryan might dodge having to steer a controversial increase in U.S.
borrowing authority through the House - something that enrages
conservatives - if Boehner takes care of it before he leaves on Oct.
30.
But in December, a decision must be made on the budget to prevent a
government shutdown like the one Republicans forced in October 2013.
His handling of this difficult negotiation will show if Ryan leads
"in a pragmatic, effective way or in a way that is ill-conceived and
unrealistic," said Representative Steny Hoyer, the No. 2 House
Democrat.
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It is on social issues that Ryan is most likely to butt heads with
Democrats. His talk of strengthening the "safety net" likely covers
the federal government's costly Social Security retirement pension
program and Medicare and Medicaid healthcare subsidy programs for
the elderly, disabled and poor.
Ryan launched himself onto the national stage in 2011 with a plan to
convert the popular fee-for-service Medicare program into a system
of subsidies for seniors to buy coverage from private insurers, or a
scaled-back Medicare. The plan infuriated Democrats, with one TV
attack ad depicting a Ryan impersonator pushing a wheelchair-bound
elderly woman over a cliff.
Senate Democratic Leader Harry Reid this week praised Ryan as the
only person who might be able to end Republican strife in the House
and work with Democrats on fiscal issues. At the same time, Reid
warned, "I will continue to oppose Congressman Ryan’s plans to
privatize Medicare and slash Social Security."
(Editing by Kevin Drawbaugh and James Dalgleish)
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