Paul Ryan Blames Senate for Explosion of Federal Spending Under His Watch

‘Do I regret the fact that the Senate did not pass this? Yes’

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Speaker of the House Paul Ryan, who announced today won’t be seeking re-election this fall, is blaming the Senate for the explosion of federal spending under his watch.

A day prior to Ryan’s announcement, the Congressional Budget Office announced the U.S. deficit will surpass $1 trillion two years ahead of estimates. The deficit will rise from $563 billion in 2017 to $805 billion in 2018. The national debt is $21.5 trillion, and will likely surpass $23 trillion before Ryan passes the gavel onto his successor. 

Ryan was asked Wednesday about leaving Washington just as deficits are skyrocketing. 

“Entitlement reform is the one thing, the one other great thing I spent most of my career working on," Ryan responded. "I’m extremely proud of the fact that the House passed the biggest entitlement reform bill ever considered in the House of Representatives. Do I regret the fact that the Senate did not pass this? Yes."

"But I feel from all the budgets that I passed, normalizing entitlement reform, pushing the cause of entitlement reform and House passing entitlement reform, I’m proud of that," he continued. "But, of course, more work needs to be done and it really is entitlements. That’s work needs to be done and I’m going to keep fighting for that.”

Paul Ryan entered Congress in 1998, when the national debt stood at $5.5 trillion, as a small government conservative. The Wisconsin congressman got his start in Washington as a staffer at Jack Kemp’s Empower America. 

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