WASHINGTON, Jan. 27 (UPI) — U.S. Rep Paul Ryan, R-Wis., the Republican U.S. vice presidential nominee in 2012, said Sunday the election outcome suggests his party must “expand our appeal.”
In an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” his first Sunday talk show interview since the November election, Ryan said raising federal revenues is “behind us” and expressed doubt President Barack Obama “thinks we actually have a fiscal crisis.”
He said “I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now” if former President Bill Clinton and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine Bowles were in the White House.
Asked what he thought was the major lesson for Republicans after losing the presidential election and losing House and Senate seats, Ryan said: “Well, we obviously have to expand our appeal. We have to expand our appeal to more people and somehow how we’ll take the country’s founding principles and apply them to the problems of the deal to offer solutions to fix our problems.”
While stopping short of saying he opposes any new federal revenue from tax reform, Ryan said Obama “got his additional revenues. So that’s behind us.”
Ryan — chairman of the House Budget Committee — said Washington needs “to focus on getting spending down” but he said the president seems less focused on the debt and more interested in “political ends, you know [the 2014 election] versus actually moving to the middle.”
“Well, I don’t think that the president thinks we actually have a fiscal crisis,” Ryan said.
He said if the United States “had a Clinton presidency, if we had Erskine Bowles, chief staff of the White House or president of the United States, I think we would have fixed this fiscal mess by now. That’s not the kind of presidency we’re dealing with right now.”
Ryan conceded “both parties got us to the mess we are in, this fiscal crisis.” and both parties need to solve it.
Copyright 2013 United Press International, Inc. (UPI).
10 thoughts on “Ryan: GOP has to ‘expand our appeal’”
Be careful not to slip on the ice running to the mailbox to get that Obama handout.
They need to lower their standards to that of the Democrap deadbeat party and allow illegals into the country and increase endless programs for the I don’t want to work bloodsuckers just to get votes. Don’t worry deadbeats Osama Obama can completely destroy the free enterprise system with his next four years and your checks will keep rolling in.
We can always count on you to prove the point, blog. Republicans continue to lose because their fan base is made up of absolute cretins like you.
This is just my opinion as an Independent Voter. They need to learn to support all of the people , not just the rich. It seems everything they were fighting for was for people making more than 250K p/year. That is not the majority of the people. They just seem to be out of touch and certainly mis-read the Latina population. They sat back and didn’t canvas or work hard to get out the vote and were caught with their pants down. They acted like elitist and got beat over it. They must change with the times and so far they have not done that.
Maybe they should have talked to the people cleaning their houses and tending to their yards.
I don’t know anyone who wants to be associated with liars and cheaters. Just look at what they did in Virginia on inauguration day. If they can’t win, they cheat by redrawing district maps, to give them a win next election. Look at what they did to their best candidate for president, Ron Paul. Ron won Iowa and many others states, and should have been the Republican candidate for president. The Republicans couldn’t stand it, so they cheated by changing the rules, and endorsed Mitt. No thanks Republicans!
The Dumbocrats
Lipstick on a pig!
He clearly means “lie better”.
They do need work on lying, got to get better at it so they can compete with the dems.