Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) on Tuesday deflected questions about a bid for president in 2016, saying he would consider the option next year.
On the day his new book The Way Forward debuts, Ryan said he is focused on winning control of the Senate and increasing the majority in the House.
{mosads}”It is something I will consider in 2015,” he said on Fox News, something he has said numerous times before.
“Right now, I feel like we have a lot of issues in front of us. I want to win the Senate in 2014. I want to make sure that the House can do better. I want my buddy Scott Walker to get reelected. So, we have things to work on in 2014.”
Ryan said he wrote the book because he feels the country is on the wrong track. It is lawmakers’ responsibility to offer alternatives, he said.
“The purpose of this book is to show just that,” he said. “I don’t like the direction the country is going. Most Americans don’t. But as an elected leader, I have an obligation not just to criticize but to offer an alternative.”
The failed GOP vice presidential candidate said the book tries to reapply the founding principles to current problems.
According to reports, the book covers Ryan’s childhood in Wisconsin and his thoughts on his father’s problems with alcoholism. The book’s timeline continues through the 2012 campaign and last year’s government shutdown.
Ryan, the chairman of the House Budget Committee who has repeatedly authored blueprints cutting trillions in federal spending, also gives his thoughts on how to improve the nation’s economic health.
“Of course, my hope wasn’t that I’d be writing about these ideas; I thought I’d be helping implement them as part of a Romney administration,” Ryan writes, according to ABC News. “But it didn’t take long for me to realize that while we may have lost an election, the cause continues.”