WASHINGTON — House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his farewell address to Congress on Wednesday, urged a more civil tone in the nation’s discourse and said the difficult problems facing the country “are solvable if our politics will allow it.”
“As I look ahead to the future, this much I know: Our complex problems are solvable,” the Wisconsin Republican said in his speech. “That is to say, our problems are solvable if our politics will allow it.”
From congressional intern to speaker of the House, Ryan, 48, has experienced almost every aspect of Capitol Hill. He announced in April that he would retire this year after serving three years as the top House Republican, passing the mantle to California Republican Kevin McCarthy when the first session of a new Congress convenes with Democrats in control of the chamber.
Dec. 19, 201801:35
“Certainly one Congress cannot solve all that ails us. Not every outcome has been perfect,” Ryan said Wednesday in a speech that touted his achievements but also touched on where he thought he fell short. “I am darn proud of what we have achieved together to make this a stronger and more prosperous country.”
Ryan delivered the address at the Library of Congress, capping 20 years in Congress before colleagues, former staffers, and friends, including former White House chief of staff Reince Priebus.
He acknowledged major policy areas where he was unable to affect the change he wanted: Overhauling federal benefit programs such as Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid, and addressing the growing debt and deficit.
“I acknowledge plainly that my ambitions for entitlement reform have outpaced the political reality and I consider this our greatest unfinished business,” he said Wednesday.
Earlier this year, he had said as much in an interview with C-SPAN, expressing regret that “we have yet to reach bipartisan consensus on comprehensive entitlement reform when all of us know that this is necessary to get our debt and deficit under control.”
In 2017, Republicans in Congress passed a massive tax cut — an issue Ryan championed during his two-decade career on Capitol Hill, and one of his key achievement as speaker. But those cuts will add $1.9 trillion to the debt, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office.
On Wednesday, Ryan said federal health care spending “remains the principle driver of entitlement spending.”
“Ultimately, solving this problem will require a greater degree of political will than exists…
