Ryan: Obama wants to ‘go around’ the Congress on immigration

Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) said late Wednesday that President Obama is intent on immigration reform that does not involve Congress.

“The president has proven on this issue that he wants to go around Congress, not work with Congress,” he told host Greta Van Susteren on Fox News’s “On the Record.”

{mosads}“Presidents don’t write laws — Congress writes laws,” Ryan said, referring to Obama’s executive actions on immigration.

“He is transforming the country in a direction we never wanted to go in the first place,” the Wisconsin lawmaker added.

“The moment for our country is just so dire. If we don’t like the way this country is headed, then we have to change it.”

Ryan vowed that he will work during his Speakership to lead House GOP members into battle against overreach from the Obama administration.

“We need to do a better job of being an opposition party,” he said. “We need to do a better job of holding this government accountable, getting more transparency and basically speaking truth to power.”

“We [also] have to be a preposition party and tell people who we are and what we believe,” Ryan added. “[It is] about having an agenda and a vision, which we do not now have.”

Ryan vowed last weekend that he would not cooperate with Obama on immigration reform given the president is “untrustworthy” on the issue.

The White House responded Monday by calling the new Speaker’s stance “preposterous.”

“It’s a little hard for him to make the claim that somehow the president hasn’t acted in good faith on immigration when Speaker Ryan actively thwarted a compromise he himself helped to broker,” said White House press secretary Josh Earnest.

“And then for him to come back and claim it’s somebody else’s fault?” he asked. “It’s preposterous.”

Ryan acknowledged Wednesday that he believes he can achieve results with Obama on certain issues.

“I do think that there are things we can find common ground on,” he said, citing funding the government and military spending.