Tea Party Patriots To Congress: Hold The Line Against Paul Ryan, Elect Republican Speaker Who Doesn’t Back Amnesty

Jenny Beth Martin of Tea Party Patriots is out with a blistering statement urging House Republicans to hold the line in the Speakership battles and not accept House Ways and Means Committee chairman Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) as the next Speaker of the House.

“The House Freedom Caucus and other conservatives in the House of Representatives have done a great job disrupting business as usual. For too long, Speaker Boehner has run the House as a top down oligarchy that ignores the wishes of rank-and-file, duly elected Members of Congress, effectively diminishing the true representation of the American people and the integrity of the institution that he so often purports to protect,” Martin said. “Congressman Paul Ryan is now being looked to by many moderate Republicans, DC talking heads, and even Speaker John Boehner himself as the right man to try to bring the Republican conference together. Unfortunately, Mr. Ryan’s record is anything but conservative – and he is not the best candidate to be Speaker.”

From there, Martin walked through line by line all of Ryan’s record—his support for bailouts, amnesty, Obamatrade, and big government spending bills—all while urging the Republicans to use their power to block him from ascending into the Speakership. Conservatives have proven by taking down outgoing House Speaker John Boehner and House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s attempt to ascend to the Speakership that they have the votes to block anyone from getting the Speakership.

“Specifically, his support for No Child Left Behind, the largest expansion of the federal government since Lyndon Johnson’s ‘Great Society’ – that is, Medicare Part D, the Prescription Drug bill – the bailouts, the debt ceiling, and his support of the Gang of 8 amnesty bill demonstrate that Ryan is no different than John Boehner and Kevin McCarthy, whom grassroots conservatives and the GOP conference have already rejected,” Martin said.

Martin urged the Freedom Caucus and conservatives House-wide to keep Ryan from getting the job.

“In the days to come, I urge the House Freedom Caucus and other House conservatives to keep their eyes set on a path to a new Speaker, one who will make the meaningful reforms necessary to decentralize power in the House and return it to the great representative body that it was intended to be,” Martin said. “Legislation should live and die in the regular order of committee process and votes rather than at the whims of an all-powerful leadership team. Right now the only candidate for Speaker who has laid out such a reform agenda is Congressman Daniel Webster from Florida. The House of Representatives has always been known as ‘The People’s House.’ It’s past time that we return it to that.”