Paul Ryan tackles one of GOP’s biggest post-election problems
For the second time in two elections, an older Republican presidential nominee selected a younger running mate with the intent of injecting some energy into his campaign. Then, shortly afterward, his campaign staff began working to muzzle that younger running mate.
That’s about as close as you’ll get to putting Paul Ryan and Sarah Palin in the same sentence — although, like Palin, Ryan seems intent on using his boost in national profile to grab a big role in the national debate moving forward, likely to position himself for a future run at the top of the ticket.
I give Ryan better odds at staying in that conversation all the way until the next election than Palin did after 2008 (although she certainly remained relevant through the 2010 midterms and was a central figure in the tea party’s rise to prominence). If he does, it will be because he seems to have a keen understanding of one of the GOP’s key problems moving forward from the election he helped fight. I’m talking about its reputation as a party that only cares about wealthy Americans.
Ryan reportedly wanted to broaden the GOP’s message during the presidential campaign but was shot down by Romney campaign advisers who said the party does not “test well on” issues like poverty. Well, of course: It’s hard to “test well on” an issue you spend zero time addressing. The only concession he got from the campaign was to give a single speech, about two weeks before Election Day in Cleveland, that was well-received but was too little, too late to move the needle for the campaign.
Now that those advisers aren’t holding him back any longer, Ryan seems intent on spending some time developing this theme on his own. His speech last night to the Jack Kemp Foundation — named for another one-time creative thinker and vice presidential contender for the GOP — is worth a read in its entirety. But this is the key theme:
Just last year, total federal and state spending on means-tested programs came to more than one trillion dollars. What does that mean in practical terms? For that amount of money, you could give every poor American a check for $22,000. Instead, we spent all that money trying to fight poverty through government programs.
What do we have to show for it? Today, 46 million people are living in poverty. During the last four years, the number of people on food stamps has gone up by 15 million. Medicaid is reaching a breaking point. And one out of every four students fails to earn a high-school diploma. In our major cities, half of our kids don’t graduate. Half.
When Lyndon Johnson launched the War on Poverty in 1964, he predicted we would eliminate poverty in 35 to 50 years. Here we are, 48 years later, and poverty is winning. We deserve better.
Ryan framed the issue in two ways that ought to be fertile political ground for Republicans: as the policy heir to the successful welfare reform of the 1990s, and with education as a centerpiece. Once upon a time, welfare reform was a prominent — and winning — social issue for conservatives. As I’ve argued before, education reform should be one for the right going forward (there are indications some Republicans understand this).
Importantly, Ryan does not frame the issue only as a matter of saving money. As I’ve also argued, Republicans will be more successful if they can talk about their ideas both as a matter of good fiscal stewardship and as a way to improve matters for beneficiaries of government programs. Welfare reform was undoubtedly good for both the nation’s finances and those who were moved off welfare rolls and onto payrolls. The GOP should make the case that the same is true for sensible changes to anti-poverty programs and education — as well as health-care programs, pensions, mass transit, etc.
Lest this post be viewed as a Paul Ryan love-fest, let me note that Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida (who also spoke to the Jack Kemp Foundation last night) and Louisiana Gov. Bobby Jindal are two other likely 2016 contenders who are sounding similar notes.
The shame of the campaign Mitt Romney ran — aside from the fact he lost, of course — is that it didn’t do much to put conservative arguments and values in a better position moving forward. Perhaps Ryan can salvage some potential from the campaign on his own.
(H/t to the Future of Capitalism blog for pointing out the Ryan and Rubio speeches.)
– By Kyle Wingfield
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240 comments Add your comment
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 5th, 2012
6:49 pm
The Geithner plan also contains billions in tax increases on small and family-owned businesses while protecting the tax preferences of wealthy, multinational corporations. In short, the Geithner plan benefits Costco at the expense of the locally owned corner store. Small businesses already struggle to compete with big businesses that enjoy the luxury of a tax code filled with corporate loopholes.
Gee, I thought Ryan was the one trying to balance the budget on the backs of the middle class.
Looking glass, anyone?
nathan's political arsonist
December 5th, 2012
6:51 pm
Drat!! I read Kyle’s headline and thought lyin ryan had resigned along with will the winner
57 States is gone but not forgotten
December 5th, 2012
6:54 pm
Politico
December 5th, 2012
6:47 pm
Linda
Maybe 57 and you can both take a civics course…
Presidents do not pass budgets… Never have or will
Congress does that and will continue to vote yeah or nay on them, but the Prez isn’t allowed a vote
Nice try
Keep swinging
If the president proposes a turd, I guess all that review it must concede that the budget was brilliant and they are deficient in their understanding of the budget, including those in the president’s party. Lick your dictators b@!!s idiot.
Politico
December 5th, 2012
6:58 pm
57
Why whine because you made an ignorant statement about Presidents passing a budget and were called on it?
You said….
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:12 pm
Politico@6:47, If a liberal can’t trust the Washington Post, then all hell is about to break out. I will post your own sites from Politico to refresh you memory. Here’s proof of Obama’s budget & it’s demise.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72792.html
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:13 pm
Politico, here’s another from your Politico, your own site.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0212/72776.html
Jefferson
December 5th, 2012
7:15 pm
Worthless other than to be used as a bad example. Way too selfish.
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:15 pm
Politico, here’s another one from Politico in 2011.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49437.html
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:17 pm
Politico, here’s another one from Politico in 2011, in which the Black Caucus, not to be confused with the White Caucus, ripped Obama’s budget.
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0211/49499.html
Ronnie Raygun
December 5th, 2012
7:18 pm
Ryan’s solution: repackage the budget cuts for working Americans and tax cuts for the idle rich that the American voters just overwhelmingly rejected with a new pack of “kinder, gentler” lies and hope a majority are dumb enough to believe them this time.
Aesop's Fables and other Lib Economic Theories
December 5th, 2012
7:20 pm
SYRIA ‘LOADS SARIN NERVE GAS INTO BOMBS’
Anybody else wondering where they got the gas?
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:27 pm
Aesop@7:20, From Iraq? We’ve been wondering for years where those WMD went to that liberals refused to admit even existed, even tho Saddam used them on his own people.
Glad Congress knew Obama was sending troops to the Turkey/Syria border. Congress learned that Obama was waging the non-war war on Libya from TV after they went home from one of their upteen breaks away from spending.
Linda
December 5th, 2012
7:59 pm
To those of you who knocked Lt. Dan, shame on you! I don’t know if he’s for real or not, but there are thousands of FOR REAL Lt. Dans & we owe each & every one of them our over-whelming respect & admiration for their (& their families’) service to our country.
Lt. Dan & all the Lt. Dans, I praise you for your sacrifice for me & my family.
I will never eat shrimp again without thinking of you & your devotion to our country.
carlosgvv
December 5th, 2012
8:18 pm
Michael H. Smith – 6:05
So you think the blind faith of religion is the same as a belief in science?
The profound ignorance of you Christian Academy homeschoolers is beyond pathetic.
Linda
December 5th, 2012
8:32 pm
carlosgvv@8:18, What you fail to realize is that there are no discrepancies between religion & science. Science explains HOW things came to be & faith helps us understand WHY those things came to be & WHAT they mean.
Matt P.
December 5th, 2012
8:59 pm
Paul Ryan isn’t a tenth of the man or a thousands of the politician that Lyndon Johnson was. Ryan should be ashamed to even invoke Johnson’s name.
And as for putting words in Ryan’s mouth, I guess that’s about what I’d expect from a serial huckster that puts on his brand new backwards baseball gap when he goes to do a few reps at the gym. Anyway, what Johnson actually said, right here in Georgia:
“So I have come to Gainesville today to tell you that the Johnson administration is never going to be frozen in indifference. Our administration is going to be a Government of compassion, compassion for the one-fifth of our people who are ill fed, compassion for the one-fifth of our people who are ill clothed, compassion and concern for the onefifth of our people who are ill housed. Thirty years ago in the State of Georgia, Franklin Roosevelt said one-third of our people are ill clad and ill fed and ill housed, and we must do something about it.
In 30 years we have moved that 30 percent down to 20 percent. In the next 10 years we are going to move that 20 percent down to 10 percent. And we are going to keep on and keep on and keep on, in our war on poverty, until we drive poverty into the face of the earth and it no longer exists in our beloved America. ”
I’m proud as hell that Johnson worked to end hunger in America, homeless in America, and people that don’t have a pair of shoes or a decent coat to their name in America. We’re not there yet, even though we’ve come a long way. And we’re going to get there. Without the worthless, mealy mouthed, flim-flam men like Paul Ryan.
independent thinker
December 5th, 2012
9:00 pm
resident deluded con emeritus says
“It’s a tragedy that folks like Ryan who want to actually solve big problems are either mocked, disparaged, or ignored. You can’t solve a problem like a trillion-dollar deficit unless you admit it’s a problem, and the moocher class that elected Obozo will never acknowledge that’s a problem.”
Yeah Ryan was solving big problems when he co-sponsored 39 abortion bills with Todd Akin and asked for stimulus money for his district. Couldn’t even carry Janesville on Nov.6. Oh and he was truly concerned about the deficit when he voted for unfunded Medicare Part D to get W reelected.
According to the vulture capitalist you tried to foist on the voters, 47% of the eligible voters are moochers and just want “free stuff” So if the moochers reelected Obama and no one else how did he win?
Little Barry- grow up and smell the coffee or get some counseling. You public displays of hallucinations are getting old.
Hopeful
December 5th, 2012
9:06 pm
Withy dont the congress fired our Pres. Can it be done??? Has it been done
Hopeful
December 5th, 2012
9:08 pm
Sorry missed spelled word my hand Slipped its why don’t we fired the Pres. can it be done?????
Thomas Heyward Jr
December 5th, 2012
9:11 pm
If you broke up the Republican party tommorrow…………Wingfeild and 98% of the other Washington-worshipping progs would probably go over to the Democrat Party.
.
It’s Hive-Think.
.
They must be led.
.
The other 2% of the smart ones would rally behind……………….ourselves.
Linda
December 5th, 2012
9:17 pm
Matt P@8:59, The progressive presidents were Wilson, FDR, Johnson & now Obama. What Kyle’s article is pointing out is that the War on Poverty has not worked, that the explosive fed. govt. is now too big to be efficient & effective.
We have 2 entitlement programs that we cannot afford, as written, & the Dems. refuse to acknowledge it &/or deal with it for votes & just passed another one, Obamacare.
Without reform, no one will receive any benefits from the fed. govt. It’s only a matter of time. Obama has admitted that fact.
If the Democratic party was the one of compassion, why did they threaten to revoke all the Medicaid funds from all the states for existing Medicaid beneficiaries?
Reality
December 5th, 2012
9:26 pm
@Linda – Clearly you have bought into the republican and FOX news BS hook, line, and sinker.
First of all, social security is paid into by its beneficiarys. As such, how can you catagorize it as “entitlement”? Seriously. If you do, then exactly how do you define an “entitlement?” This is a retirement account that one has paid into their whole life and then retires and receives the money back. The reason the federal government got involved with this to begin with is because some citizens retired with no money and have elderly people uncared for is just not right in an advanced society.
The reason social security got into trouble had NOTHING to do with social security. It was because the federal government took money OUT of social security to use for something else.
I just really wish the most opinionated idiots – republicans – would at least educate yourselves a tad before becoming just another ditto-head!
Reality
December 5th, 2012
9:30 pm
@Linda –
Continuing with social security issue…. The republicans supposedly want the federal goverment out of the social security business. They claim to want to ‘privatize’ it in some effort to shrink the size of government.
This is complete bull. The republicans want this because their donors, the banks and corporations, want to get their greedy hands on the social security money. As usual, republicans care NOTHING about people (especially the middle class) and only look out for the wealthy and the corporations.
Reality
December 5th, 2012
9:34 pm
Can the President fire the republicans in the House? Has it ever been done?
md
December 5th, 2012
9:43 pm
Knowledge is power, and will always be the ticket to anywhere. As long as that 1/4 and 1/2 continue to drop out of the first assistance program, it won’t matter how much we throw at the subsequent programs……
md
December 5th, 2012
9:49 pm
“The reason social security got into trouble had NOTHING to do with social security. It was because the federal government took money OUT of social security to use for something else. ”
Those are 2 silly sentences. The later runs the former, so of course it had something to do with SS.
As for the privatization of SS, it should be a choice as long as those that choose to go out on their own sign a waiver acknowledging they will never count on the feds if they fail.
And some here really need to understand that SS isn’t really a retirement plan, it’s a retirement safety net, if one is planning on living off it they are in for a rude awakening.
Linda
December 5th, 2012
9:57 pm
Reality@9:30, The reality is that the dodos in Congress spent every cent that social security recipients paid in & the fund is now over $16 T underfunded. Social Security is now a Ponzi Scheme. Last year, there was $165 B more paid out of the treasury than was taken in. There is NO social security money! It’s nothing more than chits/IOUs.
See the last line of this chart (& don’t look at it before bedtime).
http://www.usdebtclock.org/
Regardless of how we “fix” social security, there is no other entity who would have the gall to spend a person’s retirement savings other than the US Congress.
Congress had no other recourse to pay for VA benefits as to housing & education than with vouchers. Worked just fine for generations.
Google Galveston, TX to see how pensions work without govt. interference.
Republicans are looking out for employees of employers. Plain & simple. Obama has admitted time after time that raising taxes will hurt the economy.
Wise up!
Hillbilly D
December 5th, 2012
10:04 pm
If something is infinite (goes on forever), such as space/universe, how can it have a center? Any craftsman knows you have to have edges to find a center.
Old Timer
December 5th, 2012
10:27 pm
Folks Obama isn’t a president, he is a bully trying to make a narcissist point. His platform is Roosevelt’s from the 1930’s. Will he get us in a World War like Roosevelt did to save his agenda? As an Old Timer to younger folks, “it ain’t g onna be pretty”.
md
December 5th, 2012
10:35 pm
HD, the center is where I am standing at any given moment in time……that is the center of “my” universe as infinity extends out in all directions.
Hillbilly D
December 5th, 2012
10:40 pm
md
Well, you might be onto something there. There’s no shortage of people I run into who seem to think they’re the center of the universe.
Choctaw
December 5th, 2012
10:49 pm
Hillbilly
Now now, Tiberius would be ok if you mentioned him by name.
Hillbilly D
December 5th, 2012
11:00 pm
Choctaw
I’ve never run into Tiberius, so I couldn’t be talking about him.
Banderson
December 5th, 2012
11:47 pm
Yeah, the debt is a real problem, and so is the Social Security/Medicare shortfall. Who was the president that signed that drug benefit passed back in 2003? That thing cost a fortune! Of course, the big pharma companies like it.
57 States is gone but not forgotten
December 6th, 2012
12:08 am
Linda, I love you!! Thanks for schooling politico to the Bookman blog where he can get that tingly feeling over Jamvets leg!! nice work!!
JDW
December 6th, 2012
8:03 am
@Kyle…”So, leaving Ike (who could have won running as an R or D) out of it, your role models for the GOP are: one guy who lost as an incumbent, one guy who never won on a national ticket, and one guy who’s never run for office.”
Once again you can’t see the forest for the trees…there are not many good role models for Republicans most people thought Ike’s race with Stevenson was very close, Ford was a victim of Nixon not policies, Bush 1 was killed by his own troops (Perot) and Powell most likely would have won had he run.
“I can’t believe the GOP candidates aren’t lining up for your political-consulting services!”
If they were I would tell them to wake up and smell the coffee…without serious move to the center and a halt to the Party of No the party is in decline. Let’s face it, if you can’t gain office and congressional seats in the last election when will you?
JDW
December 6th, 2012
8:04 am
O’ BTW Kyle…Duhbya ran from the center and won. Of course he became the worst President in history but that is a function of the person.
The GOP’s rich opportunity to help poor people
December 11th, 2012
10:27 pm
[...] Bobby Jindal and Paul Ryan — have all said as much, and Ryan in particular has been making headlines and collecting kudos for, glory alleluia, mentioning the have-nots in this [...]
The GOP’s rich opportunity to help poor people - Politics Mash
December 12th, 2012
6:19 am
[...] Bobby Jindal and Paul Ryan — have all said as much, and Ryan in particular has been making headlines and collecting praise for, glory alleluia, mentioning the have-nots in this [...]
The GOP’s rich opportunity to help poor people | South Dakota Newswire
December 12th, 2012
7:00 am
[...] Bobby Jindal and Paul Ryan — have all said as much, and Ryan in particular has been making headlines and collecting praise for, glory alleluia, mentioning the have-nots in this [...]