If the government remains divided after the November election, Democrats and Republicans could find common ground in 2017 on poverty and tax reform legislation, Speaker Paul Ryan
Paul Davis RyanMcCarthy faces pushback from anxious Republicans over interview comments Pelosi and Trump go a full year without speaking Jordan vows to back McCarthy as leader even if House loses more GOP seats MORE said Monday.
But the Wisconsin Republican warned that an overhaul of the Social Security system and other entitlements probably wouldn’t happen if Democrat Hillary Clinton
Hillary Diane Rodham ClintonHere are the 17 GOP women newly elected to the House this year Why the polls were wrong Obama hits Trump for refusing to concede, says there's 'no legal basis' for challenges MORE is elected president and Republicans control one or both chambers of Congress.
“We’ve been pushing that entitlement-reform rock up the hill for years. We’ve wasted eight years now,” Ryan said during an appearance before the Economic Club of New York. “I worry that a progressive presidency will be just like the rest. ... I just don’t see a progressive government willing to tackle it, because this one hasn’t at all.”
Ryan, who previously served as chairman of the House Budget and tax-writing Ways and Means committees, said there is a “big gulf” between the two parties when it comes to fixing the tax system. But he called tax reform “probably the easiest get” in a divided government in the next Congress.
"And then I look at the poverty space," he said, "and I’ve got to think there is some common ground there ... in moving people from welfare to work."
The Republican Speaker was asked about potential areas of bipartisan cooperation by Peter Orszag, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who later went on to serve as President Obama’s first director of the Office of Management and Budget.
During the question-and-answer period, Ryan told Orszag that both parties had made significant progress on infrastructure earlier this year by passing a massive highway bill.
The Speaker also insisted that there was still a window during the post-election, lame-duck session to pass bipartisan criminal justice reform.
“I’m trying to get criminal justice reform done in this session of Congress,” Ryan said, noting that six criminal justice bills had already cleared the Judiciary Committee. “That train’s on the tracks. I’m hoping we can get that done sooner rather than later.”
During his prepared remarks earlier in the program, Ryan did not mention GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump
Donald John TrumpViolence erupts between counter-protestors, Trump supporters following DC rally Biden considering King for director of national intelligence: report Here are the 17 GOP women newly elected to the House this year MORE once by name. But the Speaker said there was a good chance that Republicans would take back the White House and hold the House and Senate in November, and he repeatedly promoted House Republicans’ positive policy agenda, dubbed “A Better Way.”
“Look, this presidential race is getting very tight. I think we have a real opportunity here to win a mandate for unified Republican governance,” Ryan said. “That’s why House Republicans and I are offering what we’re calling 'A Better Way.'”
Ryan’s address at the New York Hilton Midtown hotel came during a tense day in the tri-state area. A little more than an hour before the Speaker took the stage, authorities apprehended 28-year-old Ahmad Khan Rahami, who was suspected of carrying out two bombings Saturday in Manhattan and the Jersey Shore.
“In the span of just a few hours, we all realized — yet again — that terror can strike at any moment. On any street or at any train station. In this new world we're living in, nothing can be taken for granted. And nothing could sober the mind more than what's happened in this city over the past few days,” Ryan said at the start of his remarks.
“So I just want to say all of us are thinking and praying for the people of New York, New Jersey and Minnesota — and especially for our first responders, who have done top-notch work protecting our country.”
