‘Change’ Election Won’t Bring Change in House GOP Leadership

Speaker of the House Paul D. Ryan is all smiles before a meeting with fellow legislators Tuesday.

Other members of House Republican leadership-Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, majority whip Steve Scalise, and conference chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers-were also selected by the conference Tuesday to remain in their current roles.

House Speaker Paul Ryan successfully lobbied his Republican colleagues Wednesday to postpone a vote on a proposal to bring back earmarks. Pelosi, D-Calif., and No. 2 House Democrat Steny Hoyer of Maryland have led House Democrats for over a decade and are both in their seventies.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell also demurred on the wall idea last week, and Trump himself said in CBS’ “60 Minutes” interview on Sunday that he’d be open to “fencing” in some spots instead. “I said I’m going to stay in Congress”.

On Tuesday the House is expected to approve a bill renewing a decades-old Iran sanctions law, which supporters say would let the USA punish Tehran should the country fail to live up to the terms of the landmark nuclear deal.

Priebus’ selection is “a flawless indication of our new president’s desire to get things done”, Ryan said Monday on WBEL radio’s “The Stan Milan Show”.

“If the speaker is good enough for Donald Trump, I think he ought to be good enough for the conference”, said Sanford, a Freedom Caucus member. It was the end of an awesome political journey for President-elect Donald Trump and Ryan who had clashed on many occasions during the primaries and general election. It’s no secret conservatives, particularly the House Freedom Caucus, are not happy with his leadership in the past year.

“I am sickened by what I heard today”, Ryan said at the time.

Despite there being skepticism as to whether Ryan would keep his post, the Wisconsin Republican ran unopposed. Trump responded by blasting Ryan on social media, threatening the House Speaker’s standing in his own party, The Huffington Post reports. Members selected Ohio Rep. Steve Stivers as the National Republican Congressional Committee chairman and Rep. Doug Collins of Georgia to serve as vice chairman of the House GOP. We are the same page,”said Ryan”. He believes that Republicans in Congress “overplayed their hand” by enacting the earmark ban in 2011, “so we’re trying to balance that out”. On Tuesday, November 8, the American voters showed conclusively that Paul Ryan is not the leader for this moment in our history.

In a sign that the party leadership’s resistance to the maverick billionaire has all but disappeared, House Republicans assembling for the internal vote were each given one of Trump’s trademark red “Make America Great Again” baseball caps.