Ryan on the Omnibus: ‘In Divided Government You Don’t Get Everything You Want’

Sunday on “Meet the Press,” Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-WI) said of passage of the omnibus appropriations bill  was “divided government.”

In reacting to criticisms Ryan said, “But let me first say, this is divided government. And in divided government you don’t get everything you want. So we fought for as much as we could get. We advanced our priorities and principles. Not every single one of them, but many of them. And then we’re going to pick up next year and pick up where we left off and keep going for more.”

Host Chuck Todd said, “You one time said, Omnibus equals a crap sandwich when you were a member, not speaker. Now that you’re speaker, do you think Member Paul Ryan was a little naive.”

Ryan answered, “Everybody knows that I walked into the speakership seven weeks ago with this process already in place. With its cake already baked. And so what I did is I went to work to make the best of this process. To get some good wins for Conservatives, like lifting the oil export ban for the first time in 40 years. Getting permanency on tax policy. Getting some good riders about–limiting the IRS so that the IRS can’t meddle in politics. Making sure that we get more pro-life riders. So those are some wins we did get. But the point I would say is this is a process I inherited. I fully own that.But it’s also a process that will help us get to what we call regular order next year, where we don’t wind up with the same kind of situation next year. That is my hope and that is my goal.”

Todd said, “What does it say, though. So Mark Levin says, “They betrayed you,” referring to you. “They betrayed your children and grandchildren.” Laura Ingraham. “Omni-BUST. Marco Rubio is to Jeb Bush as Paul Ryan is to John Boehner.” That is not meant as a compliment, as you might know. But Harry Reid said this, “It’s a good product for the American people.” So here you have Harry Reid praising you.

Ryan said, “Yes, right.”

Todd said, “And all these Conservative opinion leaders calling it betrayal.”

Ryan said, “Oh, look, none of this stuff gets to me. Look, I think the results are what matters. We made good on our promises. We advanced good legislature, and more importantly–

Todd interjected, “You think this rhetoric is inappropriate?…Out of line.””

Ryan said, “I don’t really pay attention to it, look people know who I am.”

He added, “The members know that I am a movement conservative. They know that I am doer, not a be-er. I want to make sure that we have an agenda that we take to the American people that is rooted in our founding principles. This is what conservatives believe. To give the country a very clear choice. And that’s what we’re excited and looking forward to in 2016.”

Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN