WASHINGTON—House Speaker Paul Ryan’s national stature is such that he had to call a news conference to deny he wants to be president. Back on Capitol Hill, he’s about to blow through a statutory deadline to pass an annual budget, a major embarrassment for him and House Republicans.
Under the government’s arcane budget law, the House is supposed to produce a budget by this Friday, April 15. But a tea party revolt over Ryan’s embrace of last year’s bipartisan deal with President Barack Obama to increase spending has left him well short of the votes he needs.
“It would appear that we’re not going to have a budget,” the No. 2 House Democrat, Steny Hoyer of Maryland, told reporters Tuesday. “They made it a big deal. Hypocrisy is part of it,” he added. “They’re in deep disarray.”
House Republicans met the budget deadline each of the five years they controlled the House under the leadership of John Boehner, who was ousted as speaker last fall under conservative pressure. Ryan himself, his party’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, chaired the House Budget Committee for much of that time and guided the “Ryan Budget” that slashed entitlement spending. But he also cut a deal with Senate Democrats and the White House that enhanced his profile as a charismatic, policy-focused conservative.
The Wisconsin Republican has repeatedly lambasted Democrats when they didn’t get budgets done while in congressional control, even backing a law that would have cut off the paychecks of lawmakers if they failed to pass a budget.
