WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan says his message to the American people is that “we hear you, we will do right by you and we will deliver.”
Ryan was speaking in the House chamber after winning election Tuesday to serve his first full term as speaker. Ryan says Americans have been looking to Washington for leadership but all they’ve gotten is condescension.
Ryan says it’s time not to be timid. He says: “You can feel the winds of change.”
Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi says House Democrats will seek common ground with Republicans when they can on issues such as investing in the nation’s infrastructure and making sure taxes and foreign trade are fair to workers. She says Democrats will stand their ground on attempts to harm Medicare, Social Security or the Affordable Care Act.
Meanwhile, the Obama administration is suggesting it is “rather revealing” that House Republicans planned to gut an independent congressional ethics board.
Republicans dropped plans Tuesday to neuter the independent Office of Congressional Ethics, just a day after the plan was proposed.
White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest said it was an attempt by the Republicans to “skirt responsibility” and predicted it would not be the last time they try to “help people in positions of power and influence escape accountability.”
“That’s not draining the swamp,” said Earnest Tuesday, referring to President-elect Donald Trump’s vow to end corruption in Washington.
Trump tweeted criticism of the GOP’s plan, but it was not clear if he was only objected to the timing of unveiling the plan on the first day of the 115th Congress.
@ 2017 WLS-AM News
