House Speaker Paul Ryan, one-on-one

House Speaker Paul Ryan, R-Wis., is strictly on message these days. His singular task is to unify House Republicans and so far he's been successful.

In a telephone interview Thursday, Ryan was careful not to prejudge the outcome of internal discussions on the budget. "We're having the annual conversation we have on a budget," he said matter-of-factly. "There are issues every year. Last year it was defense. This year it is appropriations. The only thing different is this year we started in February, not March or April."

Ryan is trying to keep hard-line Republicans in the tent so as to avoid the necessity of a continuing resolution, something few members like. They want even tighter controls on domestic spending, which would have little chance of passing. Ryan is more focused, disciplined and "on message" than he was as budget and then ways and means chairman. Now, as he put it, "I don't have to worry about if what I am doing is going to be accepted by leadership. I am leadership!"

The budget struggle is center stage right now, but in the bigger picture it is a sideshow. The irony of this battle is that it entirely ignores the main driver of the debt. Ryan acknowledges, "Congress made great progress on discretionary spending, but two-thirds of the budget is entitlements."

He identifies the problem with addressing entitlements this year. "The two-word problem is 'Barack Obama,'" he said. That means passing a budget, which can set priorities and implement policy changes in the near-term. But rather than fight an impossible battle now on issues like entitlement reform, Ryan wants to lay out in 2016 what the Republicans could do in 2017 with a GOP president. To try to pass an agenda now and get Democrats to agree, he says, would be an "exercise in futility."

Instead, he wants to showcase policies that could go into effect if Republicans win the White House. Coming out of the House Republicans' debate, he has set up five task forces (on taxes, national security, regulatory reform, health care and anti-poverty measures). It is not clear if the outcome will be specific legislation. "I don't want to prejudge the outcome," said Ryan, who insists under his speakership that there be a "bottom-up" and not "top-down" process for legislative action.

On foreign policy, he said Thursday the North Korean sanction bill passed Wednesday in the Senate, 96 to 0, would pass in the House by a similar vote (e.g. large, bipartisan). (Indeed, Friday's vote was 408-2).

And then there is Iran. On renewing existing sanctions set to expire this year and adding additional sanctions, he said, "We will do everything we can do. The unknown is where the Democrats are."

Prior to becoming speaker, Ryan agreed to hold an anti-poverty summit at the Kemp Forum. That went forward in early January. Ryan is enthusiastic about the coverage and response.

"We had over 150 members of the press. Most of the presidential candidates were there," he said. "What it showed is that conservatives have ideas for eliminating poverty. We have very good ideas."

He thinks that out of this will come an effective anti-poverty agenda that reflects bipartisan work outside Washington. "If you go into communities the same precepts are being discussed. These ideas are being applied successfully in communities."

Plainly Ryan is trying to set the table for 2017, first by demonstrating Republicans can govern effectively and, second, by laying out a pro-reform conservative agenda. "We have no idea who the candidate (for president) is going to be," he tells me. "What we can do is inject some substance. We want to earn a mandate (in November) based on a clear and compelling choice."

He argues, "If we have a bold, specific agenda, then we will have the mandate, the authority to enact it." Although he does not say so directly, developing that positive message also keeps the Republicans from fighting among themselves and creating the spectacle of dysfunction that plagued his predecessor.

So far, he seems pleased with the change in atmosphere in the House. "The tone is better. I just had lunch with a cross-section of the members," he said.

And while he concedes there are differences, now the issues are discussed congenially. "It's refreshing. It's energizing," he said. "We've flattened the organization, and we have a very different system in place."

He observes cheerfully, "I like it (the job) better than I thought! I never wanted the job. But I learned it is a great honor and an opportunity to shape things."

He continues, "Traveling around the country, listening to members, I know Americans are extremely worried about the future. They have every right to be anxious." Instead of resorting to scare tactics or responding to anger with anger of their own, Ryan argues, "It is our job to take that and structure a response. That means unifying conservatives, unifying Republicans around common principles to offer an agenda." He adds, "This is what I was hoping to have (happen)."

He says he talks to former members regularly. "I just talked to Dick Armey. Newt (Gingrich) has been in here a couple times to talk," he said. There is, however, no precise model for what Ryan is doing, trying to set the GOP agenda from the House.

"I had to redesign the job to fit my strengths," he explains. That means making the speaker's office into a font of policy, an example of comity and a place where the image of the party of "no" becomes the image of a constructive reform party. He is off to a good start, but he has his work cut out for him.

This story was originally published February 14, 2016 at 12:00 AM with the headline "House Speaker Paul Ryan, one-on-one ."