Flashback: Paul Ryan touts "deliberative legislative process" on health care
Senate Republican leaders postponed a procedural vote on their health care bill this week after it became apparent that the measure did not have the votes to move forward in its current form.
Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell had previously vowed that a vote would occur this week. But his decision to delay action was likely no great shock to House Speaker Paul Ryan, who faced his own set of difficulties moving a health care bill through the lower chamber earlier this year.
Even before Obamacare repeal effort began in earnest in Congress, Ryan seemed to anticipate a tough road ahead, predicting a "deliberative legislative process" on health care during a March interview with "Face the Nation."
"If you pass a bill out of the House and it can't get 51 votes in the Senate, will you have accomplished something?" asked CBS News' John Dickerson.
"Well, I believe we can get 51 votes out of the Senate," Ryan replied.
"This is what the legislative process looks like, when you are going through a deliberative legislative process, not ramming and jamming things, but going through all the committees, going through the entire process," Ryan continued. "People are going to try and negotiate. People are going to say, 'I wish we could do this, let's do that.' That's how legislation works. Negotiations and compromises occur when you are writing law. And what we are seeing and hearing is just that."
Ryan asserted during the interview that Republicans shouldn't be accused of rushing the bill through Congress because they'd been running on a proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare for years.
"You said you ran on this," Dickerson said at one point. "But that's like saying, some day, we are going to buy a car. Now we are talking about the actual car. You're talking about the actual legislation."
"Not only did we say, someday, we're going to buy a car. We said, this is what the car is going to look like," Ryan said.
For more of Dickerson's interview with the House speaker, watch the video above. And tune into "Face the Nation" this Sunday for the latest political news and analysis.
