WASHINGTON (AP) – For years, President Barack Obama and newly-elected House Speaker Paul Ryan have been political foes and occasional policy allies.
Obama has long admired Ryan’s seriousness on fiscal issues, but pilloried the Wisconsin lawmaker and GOP vice presidential nominee during the 2012 campaign as the architect of “radical” budget proposals. Ryan helped champion Obama’s trade agenda this year, but also has been among the sharpest critics of the president’s health care law.
Now, with Ryan at the helm of the fractious House Republican caucus, the two men face an uncertain 14-month stretch before the end of Obama’s presidency. Ryan is eager to unify his party, but even if he can, there’s no guarantee the House would make progress on Obama’s priorities, including infrastructure spending and tax reform.
“While it is certainly our hope that we can work together on areas of agreement, right now it’s an unknown,” White House communications director Jennifer Psaki said. “That has less to do with the individual and everything to do with the politics in the Republican caucus.”
Still, there’s no doubt that Ryan was the White House’s favored choice for speaker after John Boehner resigned and No. 2 Republican Kevin McCarthy withdrew from the race to succeed him. Aides say the president views Ryan as a policy wonk driven more by legislative results than appeasing GOP hardliners.