Rep. Paul Ryan isn't the Speaker of the House yet, but he's already bowing down at the altar of the Freedom Caucus.
Paul Ryan has signed off on a letter promising restless members of the House Freedom Caucus (HFC) that he won’t bring immigration-reform legislation to the House floor while President Obama remains in office. The letter, obtained exclusively by National Review, formalizes pledges that Ryan made last week in a closed-door meeting with select members of the HFC who were skeptical of his promise to maintain an “open” and “inclusive” relationship with the caucus. Specifically, it extracts Ryan’s word that he will not bring up comprehensive immigration reform “so long as Barack Obama is president” and, as speaker, Ryan will not allow any immigration bill to reach the floor for a vote unless a “majority” of GOP members support it.
Alabama representative Mo Brooks wrote the letter and will enter it into the Congressional Record on Tuesday morning. He says his intention was to record the pledges Ryan made in the meeting and earn Ryan’s confirmation that the record was accurate, so he could vote for the Wisconsin Republican in good conscience come the congressional-floor election that will determine the next speaker.
If Ryan didn't agree, Brooks threatened to pull support from Ryan from the Freedom Caucus. One would have hoped that Ryan would be a little tougher with the 1%ers that are trying to control the House than he has been so far.
Earlier today he blasted the way the new budget deal was negotiated. He actually should be really happy that a deal for this long was cut without him as leader because if not, he's heading into a nightmare his first days on the job.
Republican Representative Paul Ryan and U.S. House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday agreed the process leading to the U.S. budget agreement reached by the White House and congressional leaders "stinks."
"I'm reserving judgment on this agreement because I quite frankly haven't seen it," said Ryan, who expected to be elected on Thursday as the new speaker of the House of Representatives to succeed the retiring Boehner.
"If you want to ask me what I think about this process, I think this process stinks," Ryan told NBC News. "Under new management we are not going to run the House this way.
