Rep. Paul Ryan Won't Close the Door to VP Bid

House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., said on Fox News Sunday that it is looking increasingly likely that former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney will win the Republican presidential nomination—and that he would leave the door open to serving as a running mate.

“I don’t know if he has it wrapped up now… he is clearly on his way,” Ryan said of Romney. “He is becoming the prohibitive frontrunner, and the sooner we coalesce around a nominee the better off we are going to be because the prize is November not this summer and I think it is coming together.”

Ryan said the nomination is up to primary voters. As to whether Rick Santorum , Newt Gingrich and Ron Paul should step aside, Ryan declined to get involved. “I’m not going to get into telling these guys what to do,” he said.

After a big week for Ryan in which the House Budget Committee approved his budget proposal, which is expected to make its way through the House but die in the Senate, there has been speculation he could be tapped to serve as the GOP nominee’s running mate.

Ryan did not rule it out but insisted he is focused on his current job.

“I would have to consider it but it is not something I’m even thinking of right now,” he said. “It’s not even a bridge that I've even come close to crossing. It’s a decision that somebody else makes and a long time from now.

“Quite honestly I’m focused on doing my job in Congress, which I think is important, which is to give the country an alternative choice on two futures on how we save and strengthen America…How we save the American dream from the path that our president has put us on, which is debt and decline.”

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