Paul Ryan says he’s trying to provide leadership for “decentralized” GOP

Attacks on Ryan’s plan in February foreshadowed why the GOP has largely stayed away from coming too close to the ambitious vision.

“GOP draws up plan to kill Social Security,” said an e-mail from the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee, attempting to pin down GOP Senate candidates on whether they support Ryan’s plan.

Ryan’s plan would preserve benefits for Americans 55 and older and already in the entitlement system. For Americans 54 and younger and not yet in the system, he would create a voucher system for Medicare, and would allow them to invest part of their federal income tax into personal savings accounts that Ryan argues would produce far greater yields than the one to two percent that Social Security now yields for current workers, a rate he argues that will drop below 1 percent in the future.

Though Ryan has been mentioned by some as a possible GOP presidential candidate in the future, some top Republican operatives scoff at the idea and say he remains unknown to most Americans. And some who know Ryan well say his greatest ambition is to become chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which shapes tax policy, though even if Republicans took the House this fall that post would almost certainly go to the current ranking member on the committee, Rep. Dave Camp of Michigan.

Ryan said in the interview that he does not feel let down by his party, despite the fact that after having tried to promote his “Road Map” for over two years, it is still held at arms length by Boehner and other leading Republican lawmakers.

“There are parts of it that are well done. Other parts I’ve got some doubts about, as to how good of a policy it is,” Boehner said just last week. His spokesman, Steel, said that Boehner’s concerns revolve around how Ryan’s plan deals with the child tax credit and “the proposal to replace the corporate tax with a transfer tax.”

Ryan said the GOP will produce a comprehensive platform after the end of summer, once the results of their “America Speaking Out” program — which is soliciting opinions from every day Americans — are in.

“There is a belief that let’s put details out there in the fall, when people are really beginning to pay attention. So I’m not disappointed because I know a lot is coming in the very near future,” Ryan said.

“Nobody pays attention to politics in the summer where I come from. So it’s really, ‘Let’s put this out there when people are paying attention,’ not, ‘Let’s put it out there when there’s not enough time to scrutinize it,’” he said. “We want to have a serious and intense conversation with Americans, and we want to do it at a time when we know they’re going to be focused and paying attention.”

Email Jon Ward and follow him on Twitter

WATCH: CHRIS CHRISTIE INTERVIEW