New House Speaker Paul Ryan figures his honeymoon is already over.
It lasted "about 35 minutes," he said on Fox News Sunday in one of a string of interviews he gave following his election to succeed John Boehner as House speaker on Thursday.
Not only will Ryan go up against congressional Democrats and the Obama administration, he faces suspicious conservative House members who question his commitment to their cause.
In
the interviews Sunday, Ryan pledged to go back to "regular order" in
the House — a reference to allowing committees more power in crafting
legislation — and to focus on reducing federal spending and the debt.
The
Wisconsin Republican said he wants to create a system in which all
House GOP members — including conservative members of the anti-Boehner "Freedom Caucus" — will get a chance to express their views on the floor.
"I think the legislative process has been too tightly controlled," Ryan said on CNN's State of the Union. At the same time, he said, "I think we need to be very clear about what we can and cannot achieve."
One thing not to expect, Ryan said: a comprehensive immigration plan,
unless it is one that involves better law enforcement against illegal
border crossings.
Citing President Obama's executive action deferring deportation for many immigrants, Ryan told CBS' Face the Nation
that "it would be a ridiculous notion to try and work on an issue like
this with a president we simply cannot trust on this issue."
In
his Fox News interview, Ryan also shot down Democratic calls for
legislation guaranteeing paid family leave, saying that "I don't think
people asked me to be speaker so I can take more money from hard-working
taxpayers, so I can create some new federal entitlement."
The Republicans must push their own ideas on how to fix the economy, Ryan said, telling NBC's Meet The Press that "I think we really have to be on offense and offer the country alternatives."
The
new speaker also declined to rule out future GOP efforts to defund
Planned Parenthood, an issue that had threatened to trigger a government
shutdown.
Noting that a special committee is investigating
Planned Parenthood, Ryan told CNN that "I don't know what the outcome's
going to be.”
While Ryan won the speaker's race with the support
of the Freedom Caucus, some conservatives continued to question his
views, citing his support for free trade legislation and past backing of
some form of legal status for immigrants who are in the country
illegally.
Conservative talk show host Laura Ingraham described Ryan as "possibly the worst speaker choice."
Rep.
Steny Hoyer, D-Md., a member of the House Democratic leadership, said
on CBS that Ryan "has a lot of ability" and "wants to do well," but he
may well face the same problems Boehner did: "A deeply divided,
dysfunctional Republican Party."
In part because of similar attacks on Boehner, Ryan — who had chaired the House Ways and Means Committee — had to be talked into seeking the job of speaker.
Leading the charge: Boehner himself, who told CNN's State of the Union that Ryan is the right person at the right time.
How did he talk him into it? "I laid every ounce of Catholic guilt I could on him," Boehner joked to CNN.
Ryan
said he would seek ideas from the bottom up, and try to give all House
Republicans their say in an effort to reach consensus.
Saying he
was not elected "dictator" of the House, Ryan told CBS that "it's my job
to lead to that consensus, but not to dictate that consensus."
Ryan,
the Republican Party's vice presidential nominee in 2012, said it
doesn't matter whether the new job will affect his presidential
prospects down the line.
In accepting the speaker's job, Ryan said
he would continue to maintain his "work-life balance," including
weekends in Wisconsin with his family. During the week, however, Ryan
said he will continue to sleep in his office, but this time as speaker
of the House.
"I think this job has to be done differently," Ryan said on ABC's This Week. "And that's why I say it's a new day, we're starting over, we have a clean slate, and we're going to go on offense."