Paul Ryan discusses the speaker race, “unserious politics,” and ways to push the U.S. economy forward

“When you’re speaker, you designate who your successor is going to be. It’s a very private thing. You put a name on a piece of paper, and it’s held in an archive, and then when you’re gone, that person becomes a speaker pro tem [meaning for the time being],” Ryan explained. “In this case, it’s Patrick McHenry, chairman of the Financial Services Committee. He was my deputy whip. An institutionalist, who really knows how to run the place. I think Democrats think of him as an honorable person who keeps his word. There is precedence to have that person be empowered to have speaker-like powers for legislative purposes, but not in the line of succession.”

“I think the last resort is to give McHenry the ability to be a speaker for legislative reasons, be able to schedule legislation, bring bills to the floor, run the committee system, but he would not be in the line of succession like the speaker is,” Ryan said. “And he would have that until such time as you can find a speaker or some date certain.”

Moving to the economy, Dynan, noting that the unemployment rate was at a 50-year low, and that inflation was lower than it was during the Reagan era, asked, “What you think is right and wrong about the U.S. economy?”

“First,” Ryan began, “forecasters were wrong that we would be in a recession now. But we didn’t dodge the recession. We delayed the recession or a severe slowdown to probably late next year, meaning Q3, Q4 2024, right around the time for the election.” But he noted, the inflation that is in the headlines is still “pretty ugly,” and voters are feeling the pinch.

“I can’t imagine Jay Powell [chair of the Federal Reserve] is going to get us to 2% inflation in 2024,” Ryan continued. “If he tries, he’s going to crush banks, put us into a recession,” he continued. “I don’t think we’re going to have stories saying we’ve slayed the inflation dragon before the election.”