Paul Ryan says he will stand down in January and quit Congress.
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| House Speaker Paul Ryan will leave Congress at the end of his current term, he announced today. He will conclude his service in January, he said, after 20 years in the House of Representatives. 'If I am here for one more term, my kids will only have ever known me as a weekend dad,' His retirement indicated the peril that the Republican majority faces in the midterm elections. It could also set off another wave of retirements among Republicans not eager to face angry voters in the fall. The party has seen a large number of retirements, and Ryan’s exit is certain to sap morale as Republicans seek to contain a surge in enthusiasm from Democrats, whose fortunes have been buoyed by the unpopularity of President Trump. Ryan’s exit is likely to set off a prolonged period of jockeying to succeed him. The two Republicans most likely to replace Ryan are House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and House Majority Whip Steve Scalise (La.). |
Ryan spent two decades in Congress talking about reining in Washington’s profligate ways and overhauling the nation’s ballooning entitlement programs. and he will depart Congress with the situation worse than he found it. Ryan instead leaves a legacy of dramatically expanded government spending and immense deficits. Ryan boasted about the passage of the GOP’s $1.4 trillion tax law, and of securing much-needed increases in defense spending in last month’s $1.3 trillion government spending bill. But both measures contributed to a mushrooming deficit that the Congressional Budget Office projected this week will reach $1 trillion in 2020.