Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) spoke to CNBC today about financial situations that Congress will face once lawmakers return from their recess.
In the interview, Ryan expressed the same views on the debt ceiling as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY):
the Wisconsin Republican told CNBC from a Boeing factory in Washington state, where he was promoting tax reform.“I’m really not worried about getting this done because I know we will get this done and we will pass the increase before we hit the debt limit,” he added.
Paul Ryan: We will pass a debt limit increase in time from CNBC.
It’s very important to remember this is about paying our debts, not adding more debt as Mnuchin has said:
“I know people have talked about this concept of prioritization,” Mnuchin said. “This is not about any of the debts should get paid, but not other debts,” he said, adding: “This is about having a clean debt ceiling so that we can maintain the best credit, the reserve currency, and be focused on what we should be focusing on — so many other really important issues for the economy.”
Mnuchin has also asked for a clean hike in the debt ceiling, which means no strings attached. Quite a few Republicans have asked for spending cuts to go with a debt ceiling hike.
Ryan told CNBC that Congress has “a bunch of different options in front of us.” In other words, he wouldn’t elaborate on how he would get it done.
In a series of tweets, President Donald Trump stated he wanted the debt ceiling legislation tied into the VA bill that he just passed. Ryan confirmed that’s one option Congress can take.
Ryan also said that Congress will miss the deadline of September 30 for spending bills mainly because the Senate will have to spend its time confirming federal officials. The government will have to live on stop gap bills for months. From The Washington Times:
He acknowledged a packed schedule coming up when Congress returns to Washington in September, with just weeks to go before the beginning of the new fiscal year on Oct. 1.He said that schedule is one reason why they’ll need to pass a short-term bill, saying that the Senate has too much work backed up to be able to get a full-year funding bill done in time.Instead, they’ll turn to a stop-gap bill, as Congress has done repeatedly in recent years, limping to future deadlines.
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