Behind the Scenes, This GOP Group Pushes Congress to the Right

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The Republican Study Committee isn’t the newest conservative caucus on the congressional block. But they’re the oldest, they’re still the biggest, and on occasion, they will throw their weight around on Capitol Hill.

 

The new executive director of the caucus, Scott Parkinson, wants the RSC to use that political clout to build policy consensus among House Republicans. A veteran Senate staffer, he says that’s the only way the GOP ever can outmaneuver President Barack Obama and Senate Democrats.

 

“Republicans need to stand firm in the principles that got them elected as conservatives,” Parkinson told The Daily Signal. If that happens, he said, it’s possible to make Democrats blink because when “you have the will of the people in your corner, that stands stronger than any special interest.”

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Paul Ryan keeps racking up wins against Obama

 

Just months into the job, House Speaker Paul Ryan is winning praise from his GOP colleagues by finding ways to bring President Obama to heel in his last year in office, like forcing new certification deadlines on the government and challenging Obama personally when he disagrees with how federal officials implement laws.

 

Ryan started by passing a series of deadlines in the omnibus spending package and annual defense policy bill highlighting foreign policy or national security issues on which Republicans think Obama is vulnerable. Those deadlines have forced Obama to respond, even if he sometimes responds late.

 

After blowing past one deadline that required the Pentagon to present Congress with its plan for defeating the Islamic State, the administration hinted it might miss the next two, but ended up meeting both. The Defense Department submitted its proposal for closing the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, by Feb. 23, and Secretary of State John Kerry determined on March 17 that genocide of Christians and other religious minorities is underway in Islamic State-controlled territory.

 

Congress also belatedly received Obama's anti-Islamic State battle plan.

 

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/paul-ryan-keeps-racking-up-wins-against-president-obama/article/2587815

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Washington wonders: What is Paul Ryan up to?

 

What is Paul Ryan up to?

 

It’s a question many political insiders are asking amid a concerted public relations push by the new Speaker that has the markings of an unofficial presidential campaign.

 

Against a backdrop of American flags, Ryan (R-Wis.) delivered a high-profile speech last month about the need for party unity that was interpreted as a head-on attack on GOP presidential front-runner Donald Trump.

 

He followed up with a video that some, including the Drudge Report, viewed as a campaign ad.

 

Ryan’s office pushed back quickly on that suggestion, but Drudge is far from alone in wondering if Ryan is laying the groundwork for a 2016 bid at July’s Republican National Convention in Cleveland.

 

Republicans inside and outside the Beltway see the young Speaker and 2012 vice presidential candidate as a shining star for the party and a stronger general election opponent against Hillary Clinton than either Trump or Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas).

 

Many would love Ryan to emerge in Cleveland to rescue the party from what they think is a doomed presidential bid.

 

Still, there are a number of reasons to think that Ryan, a policy wonk who is no wink-and-a-nod politician, has no intention of being the GOP standard-bearer this year.

 

http://thehill.com/homenews/campaign/275922-washington-wonders-what-is-paul-ryan-up-to