Paul Ryan Negotiated Exporting Oil In Exchange For Importing Syrians

House Speaker Paul Ryan traded exporting oil for importing Syrians in the trillion dollar omnibus bill.

Ryan appeared on the Michael Medved show to tout what he called his major victory, lifting the ban on oil exports.

“If you take a look at what’s in this bill, at what this bill actually does, it has a permanent lift—a permanent removal—of the ban on petroleum exports, on crude oil exports” Ryan said.

That’s something we’ve been trying to do for 40 years in this country. Think of what we get by removing the ban. And the Obama administration, on oil exports—when America can export its oil, that means we can compete with OPEC.

The oil ban came at a price for conservatives though. House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi said that the oil provision allowed Democrats to add a number of liberal issues to the omnibus bill, including the U.S. refugee program.

“Republicans’ desperate thirst for lifting the oil export ban empowered Democrats to win significant concessions throughout the Omnibus, including ridding the bill of scores of deeply destructive poison pill riders,” Pelosi said Thursday.

One of the major priorities for conservatives was defunding the refugee programs. House Republicans, along with 47 Democrats, voted this month on tightening restrictions on refugees. Many conservatives argued that the best to defund the program was target it in the omnibus bill.

The White House has opposed defunding the refugee program. In the end, Republicans caved and didn’t attempt to defund the program.

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