House Budget Chief Ryan Wants Spending Deal

The incoming budget chief in the U.S. House of Representatives Wednesday said he will demand spending concessions from the Obama administration in exchange for any increase in the national debt ceiling.

Representative Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, who is about to take over the House Budget Committee as its new Republican chairman, also said in U.S. television interviews that the Republicans' $100 billion target for spending cuts this year has been "compromised" by federal spending already under way.

"I'm not interested in raising the debt ceiling on the hope that a promise will be fulfilled at a later time," Ryan told MSNBC's "Morning Joe."

"I'm only interested in raising the debt ceiling if we get concessions on spending, on real controls to get our fiscal situation turned around and headed in the right direction."

The new 112th Congress convenes Wednesday with Republicans assuming control of the House after big gains in November elections.

In a separate interview with NBC's "Today" show, Ryan said Republicans were not planning to reneg on a campaign promise to reduce federal spending for the current fiscal year, which began on Oct. 1, 2010. But he acknowledged that their target figure for cuts was unlikely to be reached.

"The problem with the $100 billion point was, we said we were going to bring spending down to 2008 levels, he said.

"We're half way through the fiscal year right now. so the problem is half the spending cats are already out of the bag and that is why that number has become compromised."