Former Speaker Paul Ryan Paul Davis RyanKenosha will be a good bellwether in 2020 At indoor rally, Pence says election runs through Wisconsin Juan Williams: Breaking down the debates MORE (R-Wis.) said Monday that the lack of progress on spending cuts and immigration reform was the predominant “unfinished business” of his time leading the House.

"One thing I regret the most is we did not get a debt reduction plan in place," Ryan, who left Congress earlier this year, said at an electric utility industry conference hosted by the Edison Electric Institute, as reported by the Washington Examiner. "If you don't get these entitlements under control, we will have a debt crisis in this country. Immigration has been plagued by politics. If we solve the immigration problem, which is totally solvable, and our debt problem, which is totally solvable, we are going to be great."

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Ryan said the House under his speakership had “a remarkable record of success,” including the GOP's tax reform package, but that it had gone comparatively unnoticed because “more people know about the tweets of Donald Trump.”

Ryan noted President Trump Donald John TrumpSteele Dossier sub-source was subject of FBI counterintelligence probe Pelosi slams Trump executive order on pre-existing conditions: It 'isn't worth the paper it's signed on' Trump 'no longer angry' at Romney because of Supreme Court stance MORE’s frequent impatience with congressional procedures.

"He came in thinking this should work like a business," Ryan said, according to the Examiner. "It doesn't."

The former Speaker and vice presidential nominee also claimed advances in natural gas had allowed the U.S. to make progress in emissions reductions despite Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris climate agreement.

“The carbon footprint is clearly dropping far better than anyone else in the Paris [agreement],” Ryan reportedly said. “Gas is a great bridge. Coal is cleaner.”