Paul Ryan: ‘We’re Not Going to Raise Taxes’

Representative Paul Ryan (R-WI), Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, declared “we’re not going to raise taxes” on Tuesday during the Fox News Channel’s special coverage of the State of the Union.

Ryan said the speech was “a liberal speech by a liberal president” and there were “a lot of things i didn’t agree with, some things I did. I thought it was kind of a repeat of the greatest hits of the Obama administration, his lines. Having said all of that, his tone and tenor were less partisan and less divisive than we were led to believe, and expect that we were going to get. So, I think there’s something to be said for that.”

He continued “the president is basically making it clear with his tax proposals that he doesn’t want to do comprehensive tax reform. We’re not going to raise taxes. He knows we’re not going to raise taxes…but can we find some tax reform that helps all businesses create more jobs? I’d like to think the answer is yes. I’d like to think that there perhaps is perhaps an area for common ground there, and we’re going to try to explore it and see if we can find something.”

Ryan then laid out his agenda, stating “we’re going to do everything we can to try and create jobs, to get people back to work, to create more [a] opportunity economy, opportunity for everybody, favoritism for none. We’re going to go after corporate welfare, we’re going to go after cronyism. We’re going to try to respect the taxpayer by balancing the budget. Some of these bills he will maybe sign, a lot of them he probably won’t. But, nevertheless, people deserve a choice, and they want to see options.”

Ryan also briefly spoke about the 2016 election, and while he praised his former running mate, Mitt Romney, he said that he would not be endorsing any particular candidate.

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett