‘Our complex problems are solvable,’ Ryan to say in farewell

Outgoing Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Wednesday is set to give his farewell address, in which he is expected to say that while the nation’s problems are “complex,” they are “solvable.”

“That is to say, our problems are solvable if our politics will allow it,” Ryan says in excerpts of the speech obtained by The Associated Press. 

Ryan also calls the House “the most productive we have had in a generation,” citing passage of more than 1,000, mostly minor, bills.

“We have taken on some of the biggest challenges of our time, and made a great and lasting difference in the trajectory of this country,” he says, according to the AP.

{mosads}The Speaker adds that his party had two recent failings: entitlement reform and reining in the national debt.

Between fiscal 2015 and 2018, the deficit has increased $343 billion, thanks in part to last year’s Republican tax cut.

“I acknowledge plainly that my ambitions for entitlement reform have outpaced the political reality and I consider this our greatest unfinished business,” he says, according to the AP.

On immigration, Ryan says that regardless of the battle over border wall funding, “The system will still be in need of serious reform. And no less than our full potential as a nation is at stake.”

Ryan will deliver his farewell remarks at the Library of Congress.