The interview happened before the congressional budget office. Eleased its report this runs 45 minutes. The Republican Health care plan. This is 45 minutes. Thank you very much it is a the stageo welcome to the speaker of the house of the united states, paul ryan. Welcome. Do you read axios . Speaker ryan i do sometimes. You are easily one of the best three cofounders of axios. Three. Ely in the top you know, van nuys is a wisconsin guy. Thanks for having me. Mike you were chatting with bob woodward. You have been interviewed by him many times. Its fun. An i have enjoyed him and his work for a long, long time. We talk about those days. That bobuestion woodward had you became the speaker of the house in october tweet 15. What is your greatest accomplishment . Speaker ryan first of all, we were in disarray and we unified. We had to make sure we did not have government shutdowns. I like where we ended the year with obama on opioids. That was a big issue everybody believed in. Ended. The way we go, we have weve got to from becoming the Opposition Party to being a governing party , and i would say for a good eight years our party has been in Opposition Party mode. Thinghow is the governing going . Speaker ryan that is what im getting at. Two thirds of our members came in 2010 in antiobama waves in conservative districts. In four months we had to go from being in Opposition Party to a governing party. Theuld know what to repeat health care experience, but im glad we went through it. It was very cathartic arid im becausewent through it, it got our members to come to consensus, that a person with an r 22 districts in deep texas had to work with a person with a lien, democrat, suburban district in the northeast. Getting our members to do that, something he had not had to do until this year and getting them to do that on health care was really, very important for us. Im glad you enjoyed it so much because it looks like you will get to do it again. Exactly. Yan it is a threestage process. The house is done. The senate is going through the statewide,s, but senators have this coalition complex in their states and they go to conference. But we are working on tax reform, appropriations, we are very excited about our Regulatory Reform agenda. We have 13, 14 congressional unit signed into law. That has only been used once ever before. We feel like a Regulatory Reform agenda has gone very well. That was the first part of our plan. That is a time sensitive thing. Then we have to get appropriations. We got to get appropriations done. We have to go back into the rest of it this summer. So, mikes top 10, an official person close to the republican congressional leadership told Jonathan Swann summer going to be the of discontent for republicans. You will come back from the summer break and youll not have had a major compliment. Speaker ryan i would not say that at all. I disagree with that completely. I heard you said that this morning, so i brought the emailed look at what we have done already. The number of bills passed out of the house in the first 100 days of a new presidency, 22 and bush 41, 20th for clinton, 48 bush, laws signed into laws in the first 100 days. 18 for aged of, 24 for clinton, bush, 15 george w. For obama, 30 in this congress. 30 laws in the first 100 days. I think we have been pretty darn productive actually. I feel really good about that. Toe ok, so when we get december 23 december 23rd, ok, that is a date i will take. Weve got to get tax return done by then tax reform done by then. Mike you will have it on the president s desk question mark speaker ryan yes. The how do you have economy rewired in a couple months . Speaker ryan its not a couple months. Its a year. December 23 . It i hear that right . Mike december 23rd, 2017. Speaker ryan yes. Its an ambitious agenda, but is one we are focused on achieving. Weve got to get tax reform done. We want to get our appropriations process up and running, which means rebuilding our military. We have ambitious plans. We have a lot of work doing that. , Border Security. We have the biggest increase in Border Security in 10 years and his last appropriations bill. We want to improve on that work. Not to mention the health care law. So, theres a lot we have. I would say come january, if we have taken 14 regulations off the books that were costing jobs, producing uncertainty, we have the process every building the military, we have cut taxes and cleaned up the tax system, thats a pretty good year. Thats a pretty darn good year. We are on track for achieving. That is the year that we are focusing on. The White Knuckle passage of the Health Care Bill the first time. It will come back from the senate. There is no sign it will be in a form that is more appealing to your members. How do you rework the rubiks cube this fall . Speaker ryan its definitely a rubiks cube. There are two reasons why we wanted to do health care first. The first one was, insurers were telling us, we need to submit our rates for our plans between april 30 and june 30 for the states. So, we are in the middle of that window. What are we learning . The thing is collapsing. They are gone aetna has pulled out. Humana has pulled out. Iowa, nobody is left. You cannot get an Obama Exchange plan in 94 of 99 counties. What were seeing is another round of even higher doubledigit increases him up clouds, and the coops are collapsing. People are beginning to realize as the summer unfolds, people are going to realize, this long really is in a tailspin. This is a rescue mission. We have to intervene and step in front of this crisis of the people out there in the individual market can get Affordable Health insurance, can get the plan to choose from and they are losing that quickly. I do believe the dynamic is such the rubiks cube is hard. I assume that the senate will change the bill. But our members and have traveled a long journey to understand you cant get everything you want. It fulfills our promises, one of the most prominent promises we made, and the system is collapsing. Weve got to do something. Rallyand talk about the the president had in the rose garden, they called it the bon jovi rally because you are halfway there speaker ryan you put bon jovi in my mind now. Im thinking of one of those cheesy songs. Mike do you worry republicans will get the blame for anything that people dont like about health care, including rates . Speaker ryan look, i think there is a silly attempt by the left to say, the current problems in obamacare are republican problems. Thats not credible. I dont think thats going to work. It will take time to phase in. It takes about three years to bring in a new system, but it will bring stability to the marketplace. Stabilize will help the marketplace, bring premiums down, but sure, if we have something that is partisan because we are using reconciliation the democrats have shown they are not interested on working on this working with us on this i except we will get hit. We dont have a choice. Weve got the majority. Gave us this responsibility, and what do we have to do, sit back like politicians, let it collapsed, and say it was obamas fault . Idol thing from a moral standpoint that is something we can do you read we have to intervene because real people are actually getting hurt in all of our states and districts, so this is a serious problem. It requires a serious answer and solution and i fundamentally believe that our bill makes health care much, much better for people and makes it more stable. I talked to the blues, we talked to the insurers. A serious problem now. If we intervene and replace it with patient centered Health People usewill give of mind and Affordable Health care. And if we get blamed for this or that, that comes with the responsibility. What is the likelihood you get there on health care and you get something to the president s desk . Speaker ryan i think we do. I think people realize the responsibility that we have on the promise that we made, and dont forget, i will say it again. It is juxtaposed the side effect that the status quo is not working. Its unsustainable. Mike infrastructure slides to 28 thing . Know whatan i dont the timing will be. That is clearly a priority. So as welfare reform, upper mobility, and poverty. Weve got a pretty big agenda. Treasury secretary nugent met with the Freedom Caucus and the basement of the capitol with other house conservatives and treasurylear secretary nugent met with the Freedom Caucus i and other house conservatives and made this clear mark meadows feels tells Jonathan Swann it is a major impediment to getting tax reform. When are you going to fold on this . Spoke with steve last night. Says is whatuchin he always says, which i agree with they do not supported in the current form. We do not want to precipitate a 25 currency depreciation overnight. The intention of the blueprint was not that we would require appreciation tomorrow. There are import sensitive industries, retailers that could disrupted if this is done the wrong way. What we are trying to do is go through he ways and means in the white house how do we blend these approaches . How do we face things in . What do the alternatives look like . I dont see this as folding. I see this as how do we collaborate to get the best possible tax code we can pass . As far as possible on businesses, go to a territorial system, get as close to media expensing as you can because we think that is good for manufacturing. Get red get rid of the death tax. Of americans can do their taxes on a postcard. Everything i said, everyone agrees too. The final 20 , what is the base broadening needed to get their question mark i agree with full, immediate adjustment would be too disruptive. No one is actually advocating for that. Adjusting the border would make imports more expensive. To discussu willing that could move your position closer to that of the administration . Speaker ryan i dont negotiate in the media. I dont want to do that. Mike you get policy in a way that most leaders dont speaker ryan i chaired the committee before. Let me say it this way. To buyin janesville go their stuff and a lot of that is imported. If we have an adjustment, it is adjusted so the person going to buy a car or jacket does not pay more mike that is very hard speaker ryan i just said it. It is hard to except. I get that. It is hard to accept. Shooting ourselves in the foot as the country. We are telling american businesses it is so much smarter and better and more worthwhile make your product overseas. Sorcerer supply chain overseas. Let me give you one thing idol think you will mind if i say this publicly. Ive met with the ceo of intel a couple months ago. Thats a big company. Hightech company. 40 thousand people in america, i think a bunch of factories. They ran the numbers. They would, on a per factory bases, save about 2 billion on taxes over 10 years if they move factories to asia. Not because of wages. Taxes. One company says staying in this country makes no tax sense. What we are doing to american businesses is saying, make your stuff overseas and import it without any tax consequence here. 160 countries today a just there adjust their taxes at the border. America, kenya, afghanistan, iraq, turn him, north korea, and a handful of other countries do not porter adjust taxes. We are sadly going with the mainstream of the rest of the world, because what they do, the other 160 countries in the world, they take the taxes off their exports because typically you can go to a border adjusted country and the taxes go in, they tax imports on the way into their country and here is the point. This is not designed to make them better than one another. What do i mean when i say that letsottle of water say this is french and it is made in america. Be taxed at the same rate in america or france. Right now, they are not. It is interesting. That is the point we are trying to make. Lets equalize the tax stream. I think thats a pretty good debate to have. Can you mike can you and can you envision it passes the house and does not have border adjustment . Speaker ryan of course. 80 of the stuff that we agree on, that is what we are putting in the bank that we agree. It is the final 20 , what does the tax base have to look like to get the final 80 . If you dont do what we call a cash flow tax, which is basically a consumption tax, then you have to go with base broaden is within the domestic tax base. Then you have to look at stuff inside the u. S. Domestic Business Economy to take those things around. That is the tradeoff in the conversation. You had to give up the border adjustment tax speaker ryan i dont want to negotiate to the media, only to say you will have to do more base broadening within the domestic economy than not if you dont do a border adjustment. Basically it is taxes and trade deficit. If you are not going to tax our trade deficit like every other , then you get your base broadening within the country. Mike what does base broadening . Speaker ryan takeaway a loophole so more income is subject to taxation and available to rates. Mike if you had to write a book about your dentures speaker ryan about what . Mike about your dentures with President Trump, what would the title be . Speaker ryan let bob woodward do that. Mike to your point [laughter] you told me once the President Trump referred to you as a boy scout. Speaker ryan i took it as a compliment. I dont think it was meant that way. We are just different people. [laughter] im a midwest guy. Im a devout catholic. I live on the block i grew up on. I just have a different upbringing, background. We are just very different people. But i have learned in congress, you get to learn and know and work with a lot of people who are very different. That is the experience you get. Mike what is his best quality . Speaker ryan his best quality is his energy and his engagement. It was in health care. I have never seen a president get so deeply engaged on a persontoperson basis to help achieve a goal. When he sees a goal that he was to achieve, health care is a perfect example, he really had no on it, and he pretension about him. Hes not a pretentious person at all. President s can be like that, but he he doesnt care. He will pick up the phone. And he will work toward an end. His determination, will pretension, and his willingness and ability to engage members on a onetoone basis. Mike what concerns do you have about him question mark speaker ryan im not going to get into all that stuff. Mike [laughter] theres no point making media on that kind of stuff. I see someone we agree on what we need to do to get the country the right direction. We have laid out an agenda for. He country we have to execute that agenda. I see a rolling congress as helping deliver our role in congress is helping deliver, making sure the people of the country know we are trying to work out their problems. Every third day there is some new news gets everybody talking. Ist i think is important that we impress upon people we can walk and chew gum at the same time. We are working on their problems. Ridiculousng on this waiting list at the ba for veterans to get their health care. We are on Human Trafficking, leaning applause, plugging loopholes in Human Trafficking we can focus on cracking down on Human Trafficking. Tax reform is so important for Economic Growth, for better. Obs, how are wages higher wages. These are things that people experience in their dope daily lives. Boring. Ry relief is unless you are struggling to keep your doors open, keep your not al rolling it is boring issue if youre one of those businesses. I think its very important that people realize that. When they turn on the tv, open the newspaper, if anyone opens newspapers anymore, read their phone, they think everything is just in chaos. It really actually isnt. We are focused and determined to get our work done, and our work, as we see it, is to keep our promises, make peoples lives better, solve problems. You knew the former fbi director jim comey. Does it concern you the president referred to him as a nut job . Speaker ryan i dont agree with that. And hes not. Mike does it concern you the the meeting ands office asked me Vice President and the attorney general to leave and asked jim comey to let flynn go . Speaker ryan i dont know the veracity of these things but thats why we have an investigation. What im not going to do is comment on things that are ongoing under ongoing review. We have three investigations going on right now. You have a house intelligence to midi investigation, a Senate Intelligence committee investigation, and a special counsel run by bob mueller, who i do not think anyone has issues with his credibility. I dont know him well, but i have known him for 15 years, i think. I am not going to do the armchair porter back thing and go playbyplay or prejudge the outcome. These are independent investigations. They are going to follow the facts wherever the facts go, and we need to let that happen, and im not going to sit around and comment on stories and innuendo. Let the investigations take their course. It goes where it goes. Mike what you think about kim conley . Speaker ryan i like jim comey. I know there are people on both sides of the aisle who are concerned about decisions he made. I think he was put into an impossible position. I think when lynch went on that plane or clinton went on that plane, i think that put him in an impossible position. I remember getting that letter from him, i think october 28 or Something Like that. I cant remember the date. I was campaigning for some House Republicans in california at the time. That one really caught me by surprise. And i remember remember thinking ,o myself, what an impossible nowin decision he had to make. I think the guy was forced into nearly impossible decisions. Understandably he was going to get criticized for making those decisions, but i think he served his country ably. Done aaitlin owens has fantastic job covering the healthcare debate. Actually she is right here. In the front, bob woodward. She is going to ask a question. While we are getting are the microphone, we have another question from bob woodward. Speaker ryan where is bob woodward . Bob. I, mike washington, the beltway, the capital what is the most important thing going on in the world that you think we should be paying more attention to . Speaker ryan right now, i am pretty concerned about north korea. I am pretty concerned about the regime, the pace of their Missile Technology development. Allies along with our have operations going on in mosul. Does need to be successful. Theres a challenge with the kurds and the turks right now that is getting harder, not easier to solve. So, i worry about making sure that our campaign against isis succeeds. Manchester is yet another reminder that has to succeed. Those are the two most current concerns i have. What is going on in syria and iraq and north korea. Is the most interesting, to you, problem in tech . Speaker ryan say again . Most what is, to you, the interesting problem in tech . Biggest problem or biggest opportunity question mark i think the best opportunity is in health care. I worry about the pace of health inflation. Health inflation is much higher than ordinary inflation. We are not ready for the baby boomers. 10,000 retiring a day, at that pace. 90 increase in the retirement population. That they are entitled to, and they are entitled to these benefits, they paid into the system, but they are paying as you go programs. If you look at the upcoming debt crisis bob and i talked about this before when you look at the upcoming debt problem, its basically health care driven. What i am looking to Health Care Technology be most, and how can it flatten health care costs. I dont think the topdown heavyhanded approach works. I am on my 10th term in congress. I have been overseeing hhs for most of those years. Aernment might inflation ofcro health care stifles innovation. I think technology can do so wrench lower costs and out those inefficiencies and are medically improved which is really why i leaned in on this legislation. I did not care who got credit. I just wanted it done. It is almost in reach, some of this technology, some of this research on diseases. It is so close. Technology, i think, can finish the job. And that, to me, is the biggest game changer for america. For the world. It helps us with our own health care. It helps us with a debt crisis. I want to make sure that our policies encourage and do not frustrate that. I am concerned about health care. I come from jeans look, wisconsin. Our biggest employer was gm until 2009. How do you get the skills gap in my state, we have good, high skilled manufacturing jobs that pay well with good benefits and people who do not have the skills to take those jobs when those jobs are being offered . How do we close that skills gap . I see that as two things. Tohnical education has got be made again. Encouraged and cool again, but also we have a welfare poverty that incident devises closing this gap and weve got to focus on that. Adult, the ablebodied the incentives and the tools to close those gaps, get the good thing jobs. I think tax reform and Regulatory Reform helps provide more of these jobs at higher wages and i think technology is something we should never fear. We should just make sure its going the right direction and we adapt appropriately. Caitlin has a question. Thank you so much. I just wanted to followup. You talked a lot about obama Care Insurance obamacare, Insurance Markets collapsing. Especially going into 2018, there is the filing deadline for whether insurers will continue to permit survey in exchanges. One thing that insurers have talked about is they need these subsidies that are part of obamacare. And there has been news this week that you delayed a lawsuit affecting csrs. Are you working with the white house to speaker ryan we are. This is a separation of powers lawsuit, so after be careful. Because we passed the bill out of the house and are waiting for the senate to act on it, i think we will get an extension because are is unresolved, but we making a difference in resolving it. We are working with the white how do wensure have stabilization . Csrs is one way, but if we do not replace this law, is not going to work. When you talk to insurers, which is something i enjoy doing. Its really not working. The whole deal was we are going to make young people overpay for their health care to subsidize everyone else and this mandate will work. Well, they didnt do it. And the penalty for not getting lowernce is a whole lot than the premiums, and if you can wait until you get sick to get the health care, why not do that . Its not working. Bys like saying to people, your house insurance when the house is on fire. You have to buy it ahead of time. Youll collapsing marketplace. That is what is happening. Weve got a different approach that we think will work. See i dont want to do is more dislocation between now and then. I want to get this bill passed, stabilize the marketplace. It will be a couple years. T will take two years it will take some time to transition. Weve got to get on with it. Im not going to comment on the lawsuit. Its a separation of powers issue. Were working with the administration on a solution. I will just say that. What are you saying to insurers about 2018 . Mike i sat down with almost all of the blues. You stick it out in the marketplace, so you are there to catch people who fall through the cracks when the help arrives, which is a more vibrant, workable marketplace. Do,ink the smart thing to lets just decide as a society, federal and state government, to pay for the sick, lets pay for the people who are catastrophically ill. Lets just do that. I dont think anybody republican, democrat, whatever thinks a person who gets Breast Cancer in her 40s should go bankrupt for getting it. Who thinks that . As a society, up pay for the catastrophic illnesses, and when 1 of the the cost, for 23 of lets subsidize the top 5 or 10 lets just do that as a society so they get the care they need, dont go bankrupt, and then what you will do we learned this in my state and in maine and other states you dramatically stabilize the americans. For other you dramatically lower the premiums, increase the choices. A society,t we as state and federal government, just subsidize the catastrophically ill in the individual market . I think that is the smart way to go and that is what we are trying to achieve with this bill. You say that you love this stuff. You are a policy wonk. What is it like to talk policy with the president . Speaker ryan i knew you would ask me question like that. He is new to this stuff. He observes it very quickly. He absorbs and listens. We have had very lengthy conversations. The stuff is kind of complicated. This is my 10th term. Not everybody has spent years working on these issues. By the way, what i really enjoy talk about a guy with phenomenal private sector experience, really understands the math and the economics of insurance, brings private sector experience and to the Public Sector to make a huge, positive difference. I think this blend of people is very good. The president sets aside a lot of time for this. Especially on tax reform, especially on health care. We have spent hours talking about just the ins and outs of these policies. So, actually, i think he enjoys learning and listening to these things. Mike in todayss washington post, it says even some republicans balk at trumps budget cuts. How worried are you about this question mark speaker ryan im not worried because it happens every year. Every president since a budget which has whoever commenting on it. What i am excited about in this budget is we have a president who actually, for the first time in eight years now says, lets balance the budget. He is proposing a balanced budget, wanting to balance the budget. We have not had that for a long time. That is refreshing. We will have a good discussion about how to achieve that, and there are people who have areas and priorities who will debate that, but that is what congress does. It works this way. The president submits the budget. President just got into office. It truncates our appropriations season. We take it from there. Speaker ryan what worries you most mike what worries you must about the budget as proposed . Speaker ryan nothing, really. Congress will start its own budget process and work with the administration. Mike if you lose the house in november, it will be why . Speaker ryan i dont like making those kinds of projections or assumptions. What i tell my members is, if we dont do our jobs and keep our word, why would the people support us . We ran on a very coherent, specific agenda to rid the reason we did it is because we believe in it. We think it is the right thing to solve peoples problems to get us on a better track, to make us more prosperous, to make e stable. Ry mor we have a readiness problem with our military that we need to address. I think if we do what we said we would do, we are already deep into our Regulatory Reform agenda. Hese are not small ball things it does take time. If we do what we said we would do, i think people will support us for doing that. I learned this in wisconsin. When our state legislature split and scott walker won the governors race in 2010, they went on and did what they said they were going to do very controversial stuff. Im sure you are familiar with all of the recall elections we had. Where are we now. Our pension is healthy and fully funded. We have a budget surplus. We are lowering taxes. Our Unemployment Rate is around 4 . Know, tackling big things is hard. If you run on something, you do it. Mike what are the chances you keep the house . Speaker ryan i think good. Because we are in the midst of keeping our promises. Mike so, during the campaign and, you put out a document talked about a confident america. But it turns out america is not so confident. I think america is excited about becoming confident. What does that mean . They look of the future and they are more confident about their lives. How do you get that . Having an economy that has not before theth recession undermines confidence. If we can get an economy that gets up to the 3 growth rate, then wages go up. Than aou are more honest lot of leaders. 3 is not feasible. Speaker ryan no, i think 3 is feasible. I think we are due for 3 . If we dont get our job done, its not likely. If we do nothing and stay on the status quo is the same. Reformet regulatory done, i do think it is likely. Heres the point im trying to make. Inpeople are going to work an economy where they see wage if we see wage growth go up, Economic Growth go up, see our military rebuilding and we have an expanding, growing economy and we are focusing on upward mobility and attacking the root causes of poverty, i believe that people will more confident about their country. What do we sit in congress thinking about . We think about, how do we solve these problems . We build up the countrys resilience in the countrys confidence, so no matter what comes our way in this 21st century time of disruption, terrorism, we can handle it because our country is confident again. That is what we think about. That is what we spend our days on. Speaker, as we say goodbye, theres a lot of great things about being speaker. You have a nice balcony. You have a great ride waiting for you out there. What is the most inconvenient thing about being speaker speaker ryan . About being speaker . Management. time i have a fishing trip with my kids this weekend. Im looking forward to it, but i had to schedule it for months ago. speaker ryan yeah, that thing just sits in my garage. 314 our kids are getting to the age they are 12, 14, and 15. I wanted to do road trips. So we went and got a van. They make these things in indiana. Its like an old conversion van. Got a conversion van. Mounto badlands, rushmore, colorado, a bunch of state parks, and i just want to do those every summer, and that was the last time we did, 2014. Just sits right now. I have not driven the thing in a year and a half. Because they do not let you drive in this job. So, those family road trips, i cant do those anymore. That is one of the jet that is one of the drag the comes with this job. Mike you are known for texting your members. I understand your speaker ryan yeah, gifs . What are these things called . These things are awesome. I learned about these three weeks ago. My deal is, ive got one with saying, yeah, shes going to need a. Its oldschool. To people who really do not expect it for me. Ive got one with britney spears. These things are pretty damn funny. [laughter] i send these to people who really would not expect them to me and its fun to watch the reaction. Mike thank you all for coming. Colleagues. Natives quaker, tropicana, Naked Nutrition brands. Thank you, mr. Speaker. Speaker ryan you bet. [applause] [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] americans were blessed with founding fatsergs who understand our rights. To be free from the secret police, to have the dignity that comes with having those who are going to govern you have to ask for your concept. But if we were blessed with that and endowed by our creator with those rights it cannot be rue for us and not for them. I think that we need to get comfortable saying black people have a slightly different sound because they often spend more time with one another just like white people sound like one another because they tend to spend time together. Thats not racist. It is just true. Nd harmless. The first guy i painted was major chris turner. I was sitting next to him and said quhy are you here . He said because i cant get out of my mind seeing a buddy of mine killed. Nd i paint from pictures and or photos, and as im painting turner im thinking about what that must be like in his mind. War is not a game, its not a funny thing. Former Counter Terrorism and Intelligence Officer anhis career and most recent book, the plot to hack america. How putins cyber spies and wikileaks tried to steal the 2016 election. And hacking isis. How to destroy the cyber jihad. Came out of hacking isis while we were writic hacking isis, we found that there were two hacks that were done against one tv 5 in france and another against the german bunedes tag which is germanys parliament which were attributed to isis. So while we were studying that we learned that the methodologies, the mallware at was introduced, and the place where the servers terminated that were stealing the information were certainly not isis. They were what are now known as atp28. Cozy bear. And cozy bear was the name that the Cyber Security company gave for their interpretation of this mallware package that belonged to place where the servers terminated that were st russian intelligence, gru. The white house has released its budgeted proposal which includes cuts to medicaid, student loan aid and food stamps and seeks to cut