House Speaker Paul Ryan said reforming Social Security and Medicare likely won’t be on the docket in 2018 during the WisPolitics luncheon in Milwaukee Friday.
The Wisconsin Republican said while it’s “a wishlist of mine” he “doesn’t see us tackling it this year.”
Ryan — who has long advocated for major changes to Medicaid, Medicare, and Social Security — said they are going to need to work across the aisle on any significant changes to the programs as Republicans don’t have a supermajority in Senate.
“You’re going to have to find bipartisan consensus to fix these thorny, long-term problems, and we don’t have that right now,” he continued.
Ryan said Congress will eventually have to address making changes to the social safety net, arguing the current structure is fiscally unsustainable.
“I would like to find a way — and I don’t know what exactly that’s going to be — how do we get bipartisan consensus to fix these looming, debt problems we’ve got on the horizon,” he said.
The speaker previously called for the House to take up entitlements this year as a way to bring down the debt and deficit during an interview on Ross Kaminsky’s talk radio show in December.