Gee, Paul, we could have told you that!

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COMMENTS: 
*  That's not true at all. Republicans have a vision and it's the following:  1. Continue the war on women; 2. Continue to attempt to discriminate against gays; 3. Continue to hate minorities; 4. Blame Democrats for everything; 5. Continue to repeal the ACA and replace it with 'let them die in the streets'; 6. Continue to take from the poor and give to the rich; 7. Lie, cheat steal, push phony 'scandals' to try and discredit your opposing political party members.
*  Ryan calls for Republicans to have a vision and an "alternative." Alternative to what? Presumably he means the Democrats' vision. Perhaps he or someone might enumerate 10 points in the Democratic "vision." Five points? One? How about this one: "Ask not what your country can do for you, ask what you can do for your country." A good one for both parties. (Thanks to JFK).
*  I respect Mr. Ryan's honesty and candor when he says that Republicans don't have a vision.......Vision and a politically sensible plan would be preferred over obstruction and anger at others.
*  Thanks for the news Paul..you just figuring it out now ?
*  Ryan has some appeal because of statements like this. But he ignores Republican policy has been to fail Obama, country be damned. Oh, and the tax cuts for rich, with some magical formula that won't create budget deficits, with Ryan saying 'we'll figure out how to get rid of the deficits'. Right.
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Republicans 'don't have a vision,' Paul Ryan says
By Mike DeBonis, November 1, 2015

House Speaker Paul Ryan, in his first series of interviews since his election on Thursday, blamed a policy vacuum for causing months of Republican infighting on Capitol Hill.

"We fight over tactics because we don't have a vision," Ryan, R-Wis., said on "Fox News Sunday" in the first five interviews to be broadcast on morning news programs. "We've been too timid on policy; we've been too timid on vision -- we have none."

Ryan told Fox and other networks that he would put forth a more robust GOP agenda that would serve as a blueprint for Republican candidates going into the 2016 presidential and congressional elections.

"We have to have a vision and offer an alternative to this country so that they can see that if we get the chance to lead, if we get the presidency and if we keep Congress, this is what it will look like, this is how we'll fix the problems working families are facing," Ryan said on Fox.

In another interview, with CNN's Dana Bash, Ryan pledged to "go on offense" as speaker: "We've been too timid for too long around here."

Ryan's election ended a monthlong scramble to identify a successor to John Boehner, R-Ohio, who left Congress last week after nearly five years as speaker. Ryan, thanks to his chairmanships of the House Budget and Ways and Means committees and his 2012 nomination for vice president, was seen as uniquely positioned to unite a House Republican conference badly divided over how to oppose President Barack Obama on issues as diverse as fiscal policy, regulation and immigration.

Ryan made public Sunday at least one commitment he had made in private settings in recent weeks: not to take up an immigration-reform package while Obama is president.

"Specifically on this issue, you cannot trust this president," Ryan said on CNN, referring to Obama's 2014 executive orders granting some illegal immigrants a path to legal status: "This president tried to write the law himself. ... Presidents don't write laws; Congress writes laws."

Ryan has supported comprehensive immigration-reform legislation that would include a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, and Boehner had hoped to take up such a bill as recently as last year. But a conservative backlash, seen in the surprise ouster of then-Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., in a primary election last year, arrested that momentum.

In addressing the immigration issue in recent private meetings, Ryan pledged to obey the "Hastert rule," bringing to the floor only those bills supported by a majority of Republicans. But Ryan on Sunday opened the door to breaching the rule on other matters.

"There are always exceptions to the rules, and when circumstances dictate, we have to look at all options available. But I believe it's important going forward that we operate on a consensus basis," he said on Fox.

Ryan also declined to take up another crucial issue to many conservatives: a push to defund Planned Parenthood in spending legislation that must be passed by early December. Although he said the group "shouldn't get a red cent from the taxpayer," he would not commit to including defunding language that would spark a showdown with Obama and congressional Democrats.

"Being an effective opposition party is being honest with people up front about what it is we can and can't achieve," Ryan said on CNN. "Are we going to let Congress work its will? Yes. ... I don't know what the outcome is going to be."

Ryan, 45, who has three young children, was also pressed on his request to maintain his weekend time with his family as a prerequisite for agreeing to serve as speaker. That demand touched off a wide conversation about how American workers are able to balance their personal lives with their professional lives -- and it has led to calls for legislation guaranteeing paid family leave.

Ryan dismissed those suggestions: "I don't think people asked me to be speaker so I can take more money from hardworking taxpayers to create some new federal entitlement," he said on Fox. "I'm going to keep living in Janesville, Wis. Yes, Sundays are going to be family days, and Saturdays are family and constituent days. That is what most people want in their life -- is a balance."

During the week, he told CNN, he will continue to sleep on a cot in his Capitol Hill office -- as he has done since arriving in Washington in 1999.

"I'm just a normal guy," he told Bash, explaining the decision.

"Yeah, but normal guys don't sleep in their office," Bash replied.

Ryan said the practice "actually makes me more efficient."
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