Story highlights House Republicans said in an earlier plan they envisioned it would be revenue neutral

Paul Ryan said that Republicans hope tax reform could lead to 3% economic growth

(CNN) House Speaker Paul Ryan declined to commit Wednesday to making tax code changes "revenue neutral," joining other Republicans in leaving the door open to raising the deficit as part of the reform effort.

It was another example of Republican leaders signaling they might not require major changes to the tax code -- like closing big loopholes or eliminating certain deductions -- to raise money for expected tax cuts.

Asked twice during an interview with the Associated Press if he will insist that tax reform be revenue neutral, Ryan didn't give a yes-or-no answer but instead deferred to the tax-writing committees that are working on the details and argued that creating economic growth with the tax plan is "more important than anything else."

"We want pro-growth tax reform that will get the economy growing, that will get people back to work, that will get middle income taxpayers a tax cut and that will put American businesses in a better competitive playing field," Ryan said. "That is more important than anything else because if we have tax reform that doesn't actually fix our problems, then we'll lose more and more businesses, and the deficit will go even higher."

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