White House calls Ryan’s immigration remarks ‘preposterous’

The budget deal, which quickly won Senate approval and was sent to President Obama, will increase federal spending by $80 billion over the next two years and will avoid a default on the federal debt that the Treasury Department said could occur within days. White House spokesman Josh Earnest said Ryan’s comments on immigration reform on 1 November were “preposterous” and disappointing.

Ryan is under pressure to show face by allowing the process to be as open as possible. More than 300 amendments to the bill were submitted and members debated more than 100 of them, leading to votes and debate late into the night several times. It so far has not released a specific set of pay-fors that would cover the costs, but many expect it will produce a package similar to the Senate bill.

Moreover, Ryan made clear that he would let the House work its will, signaling he would not stand in the way of a controversial amendment this week to revive the moribund Export-Import Bank, the nation’s chief export credit agency that is reviled by small-government conservatives. “We are wiping the slate clean”, he said. It was passed out of committee in a unanimous bipartisan vote in mid-October.

Conservatives complained under Speaker Boehner, R-Ohio, that leadership would nearly always negotiate these spending packages in secret and then release them at the last minute, giving lawmakers little time to review the legislation before the final vote. But I think it’s more the fact that women in particular heard you talking like this and said, “Wow, he gets it. Maybe he can do something about it”.

Despite those disputes, however, the measure moved forward.

“It’s curious, and I wish him well with it”, said Pelosi, who also told reporters that as a former member of the Appropriations Committee she appreciated the expertise those members bring to bear. “The attitude, by the way, from leadership has been fantastic”. He shied from the speakership because of the frustrating and counterproductive climate of anger and inaction in the chamber, pledging that he would do things differently if he got the gavel and insisting that the most rightward wind of the House promise not to try to block him at every turn. “And we fully expect that we are going to exercise that power”, Ryan said when pressed over whether he planned to attach so-called “policy riders” to a must-pass spending bill that Congress needs to approve before December 11. Ryan, in his press conference, noted that not only was the process on government funding starting well over a month before the deadline, but he was also actively seeking input from the rank-and-file members.

“Normally, we wouldn’t be talking about this yet”.

“The president has proven himself untrustworthy on this issue, because he tried to unilaterally rewrite the law himself”. That’s so we can hold them accountable – and we must! He added that even though Republicans can’t pass everything into law that they want at the moment, it shouldn’t stop them from “trying, and from offering ideas”. “From now on, that’s how we will work”.

One of those 79 Republicans was Ryan, who said: “As with any budget agreement, this one has some good, some bad, and some ugly”. You would think that there would be an amount of jubilation across the republicans, but there is only cautious optimism.