Ryan Fires Warning Shot at White House: GOP Will Cut Spending

Newly-anointed House Speaker Paul Ryan on Tuesday raised the specter of a possible government shutdown in December.

Ryan told the White House and Democratic lawmakers that Republicans are serious about cutting government spending and are prepared to fight.

The warning came after a two-year budget deal, hammered out under Ryan's predecessor John Boehner, was signed by President Barack Obama. But the deeply-divided House and Senate still need to OK a funding bill that sets levels for federal agencies.

"This is the legislative branch, and the power of the purse rests within the legislative branch. And we fully expect that we are going to exercise that power," Ryan when asked if he would attach so-called "policy riders" to a spending bill that Congress needs to approve before Dec. 11, CNN reported.

In an interview with The Huffington Post on Monday, Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York Democrats warned that the GOP's "hard right" could insist on a shutdown.

"It won't be over the numbers. We won that fight. We won it big. It would be over the riders," Schumer said.

"I think we will win the fight, more so now after winning this part of the fight and all the tumult in the Republican caucus. The public is beginning to see how crazy they are."

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