House Budget chairman not running for president, but 'you never know what opportunities present themselves way down the road'

House Budget Committee chairman Paul Ryan, R- Wisc., said on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday that he was disappointed by the decision of Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels to not run for the Republican presidential nomination.

Ryan left only the slimmest chance that he himself might run, or accept a draft.

“It’s not my plan” to run, he told NBC’s David Gregory. “I’m not going to get into all these hypotheticals for the future. My point is: I’m not running for running for president. You never know what opportunities present themselves way down the road.”

Ryan has been driving the fiscal debate in Washington with his plan to cut federal debt and fundamentally redesign Medicare and Medicaid, the two entitlement programs that now account for more than one-fifth of federal spending.

Arguing that the plan, passed by the House last month, imposes too heavy a burden on older Americans, Democrats see it as a huge liability for Republicans in the 2012 campaign.

Gingrich comment 'a gross mischaracterization'
As he has for weeks, Ryan again gave a vigorous defense of his proposal, saying it would avert a debt crisis.

He said the criticism of his plan voiced last week on Meet the Press by GOP presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich was “deeply inaccurate” and “a gross mischaracterization of the House Republican budget plan.”

Last week, Gingrich denounced the Ryan plan as “right-wing social engineering,” but, in the face of furious criticism from Republicans, recanted that statement and eventually tried to claim he hadn’t really been referring to Ryan’s proposal.