Ryan: GOP must 'be more than just an opposition party'

Ryan: GOP must 'be more than just an opposition party'
By Jonathan Easley - 01-10-16 13:04 PM EST

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Sunday urged Republicans to “be more than just an opposition party,” acknowledging that a recent vote to repeal ObamaCare didn’t offer a healthcare alternative as none has found a GOP consensus.

Speaking on CBS’s "Face the Nation," Ryan said his goal is for the House to vote in support of an alternative even if it would ultimately get swatted down by the White House.

“My goal — I don’t know how far it will go given the fact we have a filibuster and a guy named Obama whose not going to replace ObamaCare — but my goal is that we as Republicans who don’t like these laws, don’t like the direction of the country, I think we have to be more than just an opposition party,” Ryan said. “We have to be a proposition party.”

“So if we don’t like this, we have to show how we’d do things differently,” Ryan continued. “And ObamaCare is failing, whether its premiums, restricted access, higher deductibles, families losing the insurance they want to keep. People are hurting, and we need to offer a solution. So yes, on this and many other issues, we need to offer an alternative and that’s exactly what I intend on having us do.”

Ryan, who was speaking in the wake of an anti-poverty summit he hostedin South Carolina, also chastised his party for not doing enough to court the minority voters who overwhelmingly support Democrats.

“I think we need to do that,” Ryan said. I think it’s a mistake that’s been made. We’ve got to go and compete for the minds and hearts and the votes of everybody in this country no matter who they are. I think what we’ve had is one party takes a group of people for granted, and the other party has not paid attention to them.”

Ryan said one of his regrets from the 2012 presidential election, when he was the vice presidential candidate on the ticket with Mitt Romney, was that he didn’t do more minority outreach.

“I think our presidential [candidates] need to do this,” Ryan said. “It’s one thing I regret not having done like I wanted to in 2012.”