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The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, offers a press conference at the Capitol in Washington DC (United States) on April 11, 2018, where he confirmed through his office that he will not stand for re-election in November, as several local media had advanced. EFE / Shawn Thew
The speaker of the United States House of Representatives, Paul Ryan, offers a press conference at the Capitol in Washington DC (United States) on April 11, 2018, where he confirmed through his office that he will not stand for re-election in November,…

Is Paul Ryan's anticipated departure a premonition?

The "Deficit Hawk" will leave his post at the end of his term, leaving behind an arguable trajectory, a heated competition within his party and what promises…

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This is another political exit within the Trump Era.

The Speaker of the House of Representatives of the Congress, Paul Ryan, has announced that he will not seek re-election at the end of his term in office.

Claiming to have accomplished "heckuva lot," the Wisconsin Republican representative argued that "his decision is a personal one, saying he did not want his children growing up with a 'weekend dad'," the Boston Globe reported.

"I have given this job everything I have," he said. "We’re going to have a great record to run on."

The first media to report the news was Axios, when Ryan communicated privately to his Republican colleagues in the House that he would not seek re-election, before going to the media.

Subsequently, Brendan Buck, Ryan's counselor, issued a statement on behalf of the representative assuring that "he will serve out his full term, run through the tape, and then retire in January.”

"After nearly twenty years in the House, the speaker is proud of all that has been accomplished and is ready to devote more of his time to being a husband and a father," the statement continued.

Who once called himself "The Deficit Hawk" leaves behind two decades of experience where "he has consistently supported tax cuts and spending hikes that have boosted deficits, while consistently trashing Democrats for failing to cut the deficits", remember Politico. "It will inevitably be described as 'ironic' that Ryan came to Congress when the budget was in surplus and left with deficits heading toward $1 trillion."

His career in Congress focused on tax cuts, to the point of transforming them into "a personal cause," something Congress finally approved late last year.

"It's something I've worked on all my adult life," Ryan said during his press conference.

According to the Washington Post, the speaker of the House "cited tax reform and rebuilding the military as his two biggest achievements and said he wants to accomplish more before stepping down."

But for any economics observer, his promises to reduce the national debt became dusty when he set out to reduce taxes - something that only increases debt.

Ryan has represented the 1st Congressional District in Wisconsin since 1999 and has had a career within the House Ways and Means Committee as well as the Budget Committee, and his retirement transformed him into ·the first speaker since Democrat Tip O’Neill in 1986 to announce his retirement so far in advance,” the Post continues.

And the competition for his position won’t take long to start.

Although the position of speaker of the House is a milestone in the career of any representative, the political situation is so delicate for the Republican Party that the candidate should be chosen with pincers.

However, "everybody will start jockeying for position immediately," Representative Mark Meadows (R-N.C.) told the Post. "They won’t wait for nine months."

Possible candidates would be the majority leader, Kevin McCarthy (Calif.) and the majority whip, Steve Scalise (La.)

But what everyone intuits is that, despite Ryan's arguments, his announced retirement could be a symptom of a majority that will fail during the November elections.

According to what Tyler Law, spokesman for the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, stated through a press release: "Speaker Ryan sees what is coming in November, and is calling it quits rather than standing behind a House Republican agenda to increase healthcare costs for middle-class families while slashing Social Security and Medicare to pay for his handouts to the richest and largest corporations. Unfortunately, for the many vulnerable House Republicans that Paul Ryan is abandoning, his historically unpopular and failed policies will hang over their reelections like a dark cloud."

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