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Ryan uses farewell address to assail politics of 'outrage'

By ALAN FRAM the coming decade. people — far more than
Associated Press "I acknowledge plainly were in play this year in a
WASHINGTON (AP) — Re- that my ambitions for en- failed attempt by Trump
tiring House Speaker Paul titlement reform have out- and Congress to address
Ryan decried the outrage paced the political real- the issue.
and bitterness that he said ity, and I consider this our Ryan was long a quiet force
now color American poli- greatest unfinished busi- for broad immigration over-
tics in a farewell speech ness," he said. hauls that conservatives
that also acknowledged his While the House-passed opposed as going too far
inability to achieve two top health care bill would have in offering citizenship to im-
goals: controlling surging culled savings from Med- migrants in the U.S. illegally.
federal debt and reining in icaid and other programs, As speaker, he couldn't uni-
Medicare and other mam- the effort died in the GOP- fy Republicans behind one
moth benefit programs. run Senate, killed by solid approach.
"Our complex problems are Democratic opposition Resolving the problem
absolutely solvable," Ryan and a handful of Republi- would take "some of the
said at the Library of Con- can opponents. venom out of our dis-
gress, across the street from Ryan was elected to Con- course," he said.
the U.S. Capitol, where he's gress in 1998 and became On foreign policy, Ryan
ending two decades in the a leader of Republicans try- called for "committing to
House. "That is to say our ing to shrink government. the pillars of international
problems are solvable if our As House Budget Commit- relations," a contrast with
politics will allow it." tee chairman, he wrote Trump's pillorying of NATO
The Wisconsin Republican's spending plans that envi- and withdrawal from some
half-hour address, which sioned squeezing savings organizations. America
touted achievements and from popular benefit pro- must lead "not with blus-
admits shortcomings, came grams like Medicare and ter but with steady, princi-
as he ends his three-year eliminating deficits — cuts pled action," he said.Ryan
run as speaker. Despite Congress never actually barely discussed last year's
GOP control of the White House Speaker Paul Ryan of Wis., gives a farewell speech in the enacted. GOP tax cut bill, which he
House and Congress the Great Hall of the Library of Congress in Washington, Wednesday, He was Mitt Romney's considers perhaps his most
past two years, it's been a Dec. 19, 2018. vice presidential running significant accomplish-
remarkably tumultuous pe- Associated Press mate in 2012 and became ment. He cited that bill's tax
riod dominated by the er- speaker in 2015 after con- breaks for investors in low-
ratic decision-making and health care law, a primary fense spending and rolled servative unrest prompted income communities and
verbal outbursts of Presi- GOP priority. back Obama regulations the abrupt resignation of his cautioned Republicans not
dent Donald Trump and Ryan never explicitly men- protecting clean air and predecessor, John Boeh- to let efforts to ease pov-
Republican divisions over tioned Trump in his remarks. water. But its attempt to ner, R-Ohio. Ryan, 48, an- erty "drift from your con-
top issues like health care But he bemoaned the di- scuttle Obama's health nounced last April that he sciousness."
and immigration. visiveness that has been a care statute crashed, an- would not seek House re- The president of the Club
Underscoring the chaos hallmark of Trump's relent- nual federal deficits are election, saying he needed for Growth, a conserva-
Ryan was leaving behind, less, bitter denunciations surging and big-ticket en- more family time. tive group that has clashed
Congress was spending its of his political opponents, titlement programs are still On immigration, Ryan said with GOP congressional
waning hours before ad- often on Twitter. unchecked. no matter how the border leaders it considers too
journment trying to prevent "All of this gets amplified by "We have taken on some of wall battle is resolved, "The cautious, faulted Ryan for
a partial government shut- technology, with an incen- the biggest challenges of system will still be in need of not pushing hard enough
down as Trump clashed tive structure that preys on our time, and we've made serious reform. And no less to cut benefit programs.
with Democrats over his people's fears, and algo- a great and lasting differ- than our full potential as a "It wasn't just the political
desire for taxpayer money rithms that play on anger," ence in the trajectory of nation here is at stake." reality. It was the failure of
to build a border wall with he said. "Outrage has be- this country," he said, laud- In a departure from Trump's his leadership as the speak-
Mexico. come a brand." ing Republicans for trying frequent anti-immigrant er to force that to be an is-
Ryan's departure comes He said the combativeness to tackle intractable issues rhetoric, Ryan said a fix sue," said David McIntosh.
six weeks after an Election "pulls on the threads of our like health care and immi- should include not just bor- Defenders said Ryan led a
Day that saw Democrats common humanity in what gration. der security but also help House GOP that's bitterly di-
capture House control. could be our unraveling," Thanks partly to the 10-year, for immigrants in the U.S. vided between hard-right
Their triumph followed a and he conceded that he $1.5 trillion tax cut Republi- illegally to stay "and be a conservatives and more
campaign in which they didn't know how to fix the cans enacted last year, the part of our American fab- pragmatic lawmakers.
pummeled Republicans problem. nonpartisan Congressional ric." He said that should in- "He unified a very frac-
for trying to repeal and Under Ryan, Congress ap- Budget Office estimates a clude "the undocumented tious majority and kept it
replace former President proved the biggest tax cuts record $12.4 trillion in ac- population," a group esti- functioning," said Rep. Tom
Barack Obama's popular in decades, boosted de- cumulated federal debt for mated at around 11 million Cole, R-Okla.q