Rep. Paul Ryan says he is considering a run for the presidency in 2016, but won't think about it seriously until after the current budget process in Congress is complete and the nation's fiscal problems are under control.
"It is in the cards," he told Fox News' Greta Van Susteren Thursday night. "I'm going to take a look at this seriously later.
"But the way I look at this is I should not be clouding my judgment in doing my job right now," added the Wisconsin Republican who chairs the House Budget Committee and was the GOP 2012 vice presidential nominee.
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"I'm the head of the Budget committee. I represent Wisconsin's 1st district, and I should not be putting into my mind, you know, some kind of political consideration three-and-a-half years down from now because I think that will cloud my judgment."
Ryan is often talked about a possible 2016 Republican contender along with Sens. Marco Rubio and Rand Paul, as well as Govs. Chris Christie of New Jersey, Bob McDonnell of Virginia, Scott Walker of Wisconsin, and former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush.
But so far, Ryan has avoided being drawn into the speculation about how he would stack up against his GOP colleagues in what could be a fairly large presidential primary field three years from now.
"What I need to do is look at the moment we have right now. We're on the cusp of a debt crisis," he told Van Susteren, as she pressed him on his future plans. "We have a fiscal problem. We have an economic problem. I need to focus on that and I need to make sure that I make the right decisions for the right reasons on dealing with this issue.
"Then," he continued, "when we've dealt with that, then I'm going to give serious consideration to these other things.
"But I, for the life of me, don't think I should be focused on some political promotion or whatever down the road when I have an important job to do right now."
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