Republicans ‘Unanimously’ Back Paul Ryan As House Speaker For Another Term

Following House Speaker Paul Ryan’s giddy, though ominous, declaration that American was entering “the dawn of a new, unified Republican government,” his party conference moved on to another matter. Specifically, whether or not the re-elected Wisconsin representative would keep his current job as Speaker. Some of the party’s more outspoken surrogates, like Fox News personality Sean Hannity, weren’t too happy with Ryan’s past performance in the role and assumed President-elect Donald Trump would see to it that the top congressional gig went to someone else.

According to CNN, that won’t be the case as the House Republicans voted to nominate Ryan as Speaker of the House for the 115th Congress. The actual vote to re-elect Ryan won’t happen until the new year, though per the Republican Conference’s official Twitter account, they voted “unanimously” for Ryan’s nomination on Tuesday:

Ryan responded in kind to the tweet with his own account, saying “It is a tremendous honor to be nominated by my colleagues to serve as Speaker of the House.” Referencing his “dawn” remarks from earlier, he added: “Now it’s time to go big.”

A “big” part of what Ryan’s renewed efforts as Speaker-elect include demolishing Medicare, which he referenced in a previous interview with Fox News. According to the Washington Post, Ryan noted that “when Obamacare became Obamacare, Obamacare rewrote Medicare, rewrote Medicaid. If you are going to repeal and replace Obamacare, you have to address those issues as well.” Because of this, he argued, “Medicare is going broke” and must therefore be demolished along with Obamacare.

Whether or not Ryan’s plans conform to President-elect Trump’s recent (though slight) change of heart regarding the Affordable Healthcare Act remains to be seen. As for the populist election victor’s many ardent fans, however, it seems the House Republicans’ decision to keep Ryan around isn’t the most popular idea:

(Via CNN)