On CNBC’s Closing Bell with Maria Bartiromo, Representative Ryan discusses fiscal policy, the necessary avoidance of the sequester, and the timeless principles of the American Idea.

Highlights

Rep. Ryan on the need to repeal Dodd-Frank

I never voted for it in the first place. I would like to repeal it and replace it with a better regulatory system that’s clean, that’s transparent, that consists of price discovery, and that does not put the government in the way of adding more moral hazards to the marketplace and triggering higher likelihoods of taxpayer bailouts. I think that's what Dodd-Frank will do.

Current policies continue to drive us toward a debt crisis

The problem is the President's agenda. All of this borrowing, all of this taxing, all of this regulating, all this growth of “too big to fail,” crony capitalism and corporate welfare is bringing sclerosis to our economy. It’s the worst recovery since World War II. We have the biggest government and the highest deficits since World War II. We have the highest poverty rates in a generation. This isn’t working, and having more monetary stimulus just goes in the wrong direction in my personal opinion. It's a very poor substitute for getting the basics right – which is getting our fiscal policy in order, getting our regulatory policy in order, and showing the country that we’re going to dodge a debt crisis instead of move faster towards it.

The House advances legislation to preempt the sequester while the President and the Senate fail to offer solutions

We passed a budget last year, the Senate did not. We passed a budget this year, the Senate did not. The Senate has not passed a budget in three years. Again, we passed a bill dealing with the spending side of the fiscal cliff – the sequester. We cut spending in other areas to replace the sequester. We're also bringing tax legislation extending the entire code for a year, to give people certainty, so we can get to tax reform next year. The Senate will have none of it. The President has yet to offer a single solution to any of these problems.

Economic freedom and limited government yield success

We don't agree with that vision, we agree with the founders’ vision. We agree with economic freedom, limited government, an opportunity society with a safety net, where yes, if you're an entrepreneur – you work hard and take risks, that is your success – we should be proud of that success and we should not be denigrating people who are successful by suggesting that it's not the result of their hard work, that it's somebody else or that it’s some big government experiment that is the reason for their success in life.