Ryan: I’m a deficit hawk and ‘a growth advocate’

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) is defending the recently released GOP tax-reform bill, saying in an interview on Sunday that he acted as both a deficit hawk and a pro-growth advocate in drafting the plan.

“Paul Ryan deficit hawk is also a growth advocate. Paul Ryan deficit hawk also knows that you have to have a faster growing economy, more jobs, bigger take-home pay, that means higher tax revenues,” Ryan told Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

“But your mark is $1.5 trillion added to the deficit,” Wallace replied.

{mosads}”The reason we did it that way is because, we believed that the Senate parliamentarian won’t let us use what we call dynamic scoring,” Ryan said. 

“Let me just get you right there. You’re going to say this is a $1.5 trillion dollar tax cut — we are, we are convinced that this is going to give us faster economic growth. I’m not saying every tax cut pays for itself,” he added. 

Ryan’s comments come after House Republicans introduced their tax-reform plan, which is expected to pass through the lower chamber, despite some opposition from Republicans in New York and New Jersey. 

However, debt watchdogs are not happy with the proposal, which could add up to $1.5 trillion in debt over a decade.

Various key Senate Republicans, including Sens. Marco Rubio (Fla.) and Mike Lee (Utah) have already raised concerns about various proposals in the tax measure, setting the stage for a showdown in the upper chamber.