Paul Ryan has low expectations for Obama's final State of the Union
The new House Speaker doesn't have high expectations for the President Obama's final State of the Union address.
"I'm sure he'll have a nice glossy rendition of the last six or seven years. I think he'll talk about what he inherited, how he made it better," House Speaker, R-Wisconsin, told a group of reporters and anchors over breakfast - his first time hosting what has been an annual tradition for House Speakers.
After 70 straight months of job growth, Mr. Obama will likely declare that the state of the economy is strong. But Ryan doesn't see it that way.
"I think it's a mess," he said. "I think the economy is very weak. I think if you look at wages, if you look at income growth, if you look at poverty, it's very weak. He has basically practiced trickle-down economics. Big government, top down, loose money from the Fed -- which helps those of you from New York, it helps the stock market really well, but it's not helping middle incomes."
Ryan also predicted that the president would ignore stubborn problems like wage stagnation. "I think he'll paper that over. I think he'll put up a bunch of straw man arguments, which to me is the most intellectually lazy form of debate. But we're kind of used to it."
Foreign policy? That's a mess too, he said.
"There are no red lines any more. Our word is not known to be what it used to be. The military is inadequately prepared and our word doesn't mean much anymore. You've got the Sunni and Shia at each other in the Gulf. You've got Putin kicking over countries. You've got the Chinese landing planes on islands they now claim, which they don't own. Everybody believes that there's no check on this. So I think it's a real problem, and our allies are very nervous."
Ryan, who argued that Mr. Obama has no plan to take on the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, was asked what he thinks the president should do in Syria.
"Not to pass the buck, but the commander in chief is the one who is supposed to execute foreign policy. It's the commander in chief's job to come up with a plan," he responded. "We're not supposed to have 435 generals coming up with our strategies." I asked whether his reluctance to lay out his own proposal had to do with the fact that there are no great options. "There are awful options, because of bad decisions made earlier! We kept kicking the can, ignoring the problem," he responded.
The 45-year-old congressman from Wisconsin was asked which policy areas he things he can make progress with the White House this year. The list was short, and included criminal justice reform and appropriations bills.
"There are bipartisan issues out there, but the silly season is about to start," he said, referring to campaign season, when the two parties often retreat to their corners, making cooperation more difficult.
Ryan said he's well aware that the president intends to lay out plans tonight to skirt Congress where he can. "I expect him to do about five or six of these kinds of things over the course of the year....to stretch the limits of the constitution, to extend his reach beyond the separation of powers, beyond his powers in the constitution....This is what the progressives think. They think the Constitution is this living, breathing, malleable document that can move." Ryan said he's prepared to take on those executive actions any way he can. "Will we be on the floor with legislation? Will we be in court? I assume all of the above."
Ryan took over the speakership in October, and this will be his first time sitting behind the president during a State of the Union address. He tried out the poker face he's been practicing on the reporters in the room, joking, "I don't do that, I'm kind of an expressive person...I'm an Irish guy, that's just what we do!" Lucky for him, he'll be sitting alongside fellow Irishman Vice President Joe Biden, who isn't known for his poker face either.
Ryan initially resisted taking on the Speaker's role, but relented at the urging of his fellow Republicans. Two and a half months later, he's glad he took the job.
"I like it better than I thought I would," he shared. "The job is an honor. I'm honored that my colleagues didn't take no for an answer. And as soon as I resigned myself to doing it, my mind just pivoted over to enjoying it and doing it joyfully."
His suite of offices has a different look than it did when John Boehner was speaker - and that's out of necessity. "Do you what it took to get that smell out of here?" Ryan joked, referring to Boehner's well known smoking habit. "It took about two weeks just to get it out of here. Two packs a day for five years is...you could smell it a lot." New carpets, new upholstery and a fresh coat of paint solved that problem. "They wouldn't let him have oil paintings!" Ryan told us. "So he had to have photographs."
Boehner also left behind a few cases of his cherished merlot, which isn't Ryan's drink of choice. "So I'm thinking about giving gifts out to members who do good things. A bottle of Boehner Merlot every time they do something. So I'm trying to think of a prize."