PAUL RYAN MAINTAINS HOUSE SPEAKER ROLE (GET TO WORK)

PAUL RYAN MAINTAINS HOUSE SPEAKER ROLE:

NOW GET TO WORK HELPING TRUMP PROTECT US MILITARY TROOPS & GOVERN OUR NATION PROPERLY.


Sources: AP, Washington Post, YouTube


****** Paul Ryan is easily reelected House speaker


Lawmakers reelected Paul D. Ryan as House speaker Tuesday, choosing the Wisconsin Republican with a fraught history with President-elect Donald Trump to serve as Trump’s chief legislative partner.

Ryan won the support of all but one Republican, winning with many fewer GOP defectors than when he first won the speakership in 2015. The vast majority of Democrats voted for Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), who was reelected as party leader last year despite an abortive effort among some colleagues to oust her after November’s disappointing election results.

The near-unanimous vote for Ryan stands as a strong show of Republican unity as the party embarks on an ambitious legislative agenda that, for the first time in eight years, has a real chance to be signed into law.

But the 24 hours preceding the vote showed that unity can be fleeting: His reelection came less than two hours after Republicans held an emergency meeting to reverse proposed changes that would roll back the authority of the independent Office of Congressional Ethics. Ryan opposed those changes ahead of a Monday night conference meeting, but lawmakers voted for them anyway — then agreed to reverse course Tuesday after a public firestorm.

Addressing the House after his election, Ryan made a sharp call to action: “We are not here to be; we are here to do.”

“Millions and millions of Americans are deeply dissatisfied with their situation,” he said. “They have let out a great roar. … We hear you, we will do right by you and we will deliver.”

Rep. Thomas Massie (Ky.) was the only Republican not to cast his ballot for Ryan. Massie invoked a Trump campaign mantra as he voted for Rep. Daniel Webster (R-Fla.), saying Webster would “drain the swamp.”

Massie was one of nine Republicans who broke with Ryan in October 2015; seven of the remaining eight continue to serve in the House and supported Ryan on Tuesday.

Republicans currently enjoy a 241-to-194 advantage over Democrats in the House, though that margin stands to narrow slightly in the coming weeks as the Senate takes up nominations of several House members to the Trump administration. Should those members be confirmed, their seats would be filled through special elections to be held later this year.

Trump has picked Rep. Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) to serve as White House budget director, Rep. Mike Pompeo (R-Kan.) to serve as CIA director, Rep. Tom Price (R-Ga.) to serve as health and human services secretary, and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) to serve as interior secretary. One Democrat, Rep. Xavier Becerra (Calif.), is expected to depart the House soon to become his state’s attorney general.

Democrats prefaced their votes with a short script before casting their votes for Pelosi: “Because the people’s House should be ethical, accountable and open to free debate,” several of them said. Rep. John Lewis (Ga.), for one, delivered his vote from the well of the House.

One Republican had a sharp retort: “Because the people’s House should be in order, Paul Ryan,” said Rep. Mike Bost (R-Ill.).

Four Democrats opposed Pelosi: Rep. Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) voted for Lewis; Reps. Jim Cooper (Tenn.) and Kathleen Rice (N.Y.) voted for Rep. Tim Ryan (Ohio); and Rep. Ron Kind (Wis.) voted for Cooper.

PAUL RYAN FINALLY ENDORSES DONALD TRUMP FOR 2016 (VOTERS WIN)

@PaulRyan

HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN FINALLY ENDORSES DONALD TRUMP:

GOP ESTABLISHMENT IS SLOWLY BEGINNING TO SIDE WITH VOTERS.

IT'S ABOUT TIME.

Sources: AP, NBC News, YouTube

***** House Speaker Paul Ryan Says He Will Vote for Donald Trump

Nearly a month after being named the presumptive nominee of the Republican Party, Donald Trump has finally earned the vote of House Speaker Paul Ryan. 

Far from a wholehearted embrace of his party's 2016 standard-bearer's policies and temperament, Ryan's announcement on Thursday mainly emphasized that Trump would be a better ally to advance Ryan's policy goals than likely Democratic nominee Hillary Clinton. 

The announcement, published in a column in his home town newspaper the GazetteXtra, failed to include the word "endorsement," instead indicating only that the Wisconsin lawmaker will cast his vote for Trump at the ballot box. Ryan wrote that he came to his decision after several conversations with Trump. 

"I feel confident he would help us turn the ideas ... into laws to help improve people's lives," he wrote.

NBC News had proclaimed Trump the presumptive nominee 29 days ago on May 4, after Trump's final GOP rivals exited the race. But Ryan withheld his support at the time, instead publicizing his concerns with the likely nominee. 

Ryan suggested then that it was up to Trump to unify the party after a primary that resulted in a nominee that many establishment Republicans did not prefer. 

"I think the bulk of the burden on unifying the party will have to come from our presumptive nominee," Ryan said last month. "I'm not there right now. And I hope to though, and I want to. But I think what is required is that we unify this party." 

In the column published Thursday, Ryan did not sugarcoat his continuing disagreements with Trump.

"It's no secret that he and I have our differences. I won't pretend otherwise. And when I feel the need to, I'll continue to speak my mind," Ryan wrote. "To enact (Republican) ideas, we need a Republican president willing to sign them into law. That's why, when he sealed the nomination, I could not offer my support for Donald Trump before discussing policies and basic principles." 

While it's hardly a glowing recommendation, Ryan's willingness to support Trump presents yet another obstacle to the "Stop Trump" movement as establishment Republicans are slowly lining up behind their nominee, albeit reluctantly.

A primary reason for that unification is Republicans' common enemy in Hillary Clinton, a fact not lost on Ryan in his announcement Thursday. 

"One person who we know won't support it is Hillary Clinton. A Clinton White House would mean four more years of liberal cronyism and a government more out for itself than the people it serves. Quite simply, she represents all that our agenda aims to fix," Ryan wrote.

Ryan was slow to the Trump train after expressing concerns over some of Trump's comments and positions. The two met twice in May, after Trump was deemed the presumptive nominee, but an endorsement wasn't immediate after the meetings. 

Trump said on NBC's "Meet the Press" on May 8 that he was "blindsided" by Ryan's lack of an endorsement. 

"But (I) have a nice relationship with him. And then all of a sudden, he gets on and he does this number. So I'm not exactly sure what he has in mind. But that's okay," Trump added. 

In Ryan's column Thursday, he said Trump can "help us" move forward on their policy domestic and foreign policy priories. 

"As I said from the start, my goal has been to unite the party so we can win in the fall. And if we're going to unite, it has to be over ideas," Ryan said, seeming to get behind him for the sake of the party and not his satisfaction with the person.