In The News

By: AIF Staff

Washington, DC – This afternoon, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Les Ford, President of Ford Policy Solutions, released a policy paper and penned a corresponding op-ed in the Wall Street Journal unveiling an innovative, state-led project, called the RISE (Resources for Independence, Stability, and Employment) Pilot Programs.

Ryan and Ford call on states to consider establishing small-scale RISE pilots that simplify the basic package of existing safety-net benefits so they flow directly to low-income citizens in a single, trackable benefit. Using modern technology, this pilot aims address benefit cliffs, modernize the outdated benefit delivery, and create community engagement that meets families where they are and ensures they take the next steps towards self-sufficiency.

The op-ed and the policy paper, which was commissioned by the American Idea Foundation, are accessible at the links below:

– American Idea Foundation Paper: Reforming the Safety Net through Rise Pilot Programs

– Wall Street Journal Op-Ed: Ryan & Ford: Americans are Getting Caught in the Safety Net

By: Paul Ryan & Les Ford

In an op-ed published in the Wall Street Journal, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan and Les Ford, President of Ford Policy Solutions, outline the (Resources for Independence Stability, and Employment) RISE Pilot Programs, a way to modernize the social safety net so it promotes employment and upward mobility.

Ryan and Ford’s op-ed is accessible here. Excerpts of the piece follow.

Aug. 22 marks the 30th anniversary of the 1996 welfare reform law, aka the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Reconciliation Act. A rare bipartisan domestic-policy achievement, it began with a simple insight: Government assistance should help people move toward work and independence, not make poverty a permanent condition.

With labor-force participation declining, anxiety over AI-caused job displacements on the rise, and millions of families seemingly stuck in poverty, the very principle that guided the 1996 reform is in danger of being discarded. States should design a simpler safety net that rewards work, using 21st-century technology to do so.

Instead, technology leaders and politicians are endorsing universal basic income—regular cash payments regardless of work. Local governments have already launched at least 122 guaranteed-income pilots, which apply income limits but retain UBI’s defining feature: unconditional cash.

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Rather than reforming the safety net that discourages work and marriage, UBI would make unconditional assistance a permanent feature.

Unconditional cash, the record shows, reduces work. Experiments with negative income tax in the 1970s consistently produced employment and earnings losses. More recently, an OpenResearch randomized trial in Illinois and Texas found that guaranteed income reduced labor-force participation by 4.1 percentage points and annual earnings by roughly $1,800. An American Enterprise Institute review of the few robust U.S. guaranteed-income experiments likewise found lower employment.

UBI would also be enormously expensive…

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Channeling the bipartisan spirit of 1996 welfare reform, we are teaming up with states, technologists and nonprofits to launch Resources for Independence, Stability and Employment Pilot Programs.

Through RISE pilots, states can attempt to address the deepest flaws of the current system. A RISE pilot will combine current benefits into one trackable, flexible benefit; phase that benefit down gradually as earnings rise; pair families with case management to tackle core issues; and require work, education, or training. RISE pilots won’t assume success. Results will be assessed using randomized controlled trial standards.

States once lacked the technology to modernize benefits. Today, innovative privacy-protected platforms can replace the patchwork of cards, vouchers and payments with one system that distributes benefits, applies requirements, audits spending and adjusts assistance continuously as incomes rise—ensuring that every earned dollar leaves a family better off. This removes the benefit cliffs and delivers a safety net designed to help parents move toward lasting independence.

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Thirty years after welfare reform, America can build on its legacy by fixing the incentives that trap families in poverty. Or we can abandon the work-first principle and layer unconditional cash onto an already failing system.

Our safety net should catch people when they fall. It shouldn’t hold them down or pay them to remain there.

By: AIF Staff

Washington, DC – Earlier this week, former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan spoke with Fox News’ Chief National Security Correspondent Jennifer Griffin and Virtu Financial Founder Vincent Viola at the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ (CSIS) 2026 Global Security Forum.

The panel conversation, premised on the question: “What Must America Defend?”, featured Ryan  and Viola discussing the future of America’s defense industrial base and detailing the public policies necessary to meet America’s 21st national security and economic challenges. Ryan, who serves on CSIS’ Board of Directors, also expounded on Iran, the rise of populism, and the resilience of America’s democracy.

Video of the panel is accessible here and excerpts of Ryan’s responses, edited lightly for clarity, follow.

On the resilience of the American system:

“I think democracy is being stress tested in two profound ways. From within, with the polarization that is sort of making it difficult for us to reach consensus on critical things, and from without, with the tyrants trying to use our freedoms against us to try and polarize us and undermine us.”

“So those are stress tests that I think we will pass. I really believe at this 250th anniversary — this system we have, freedom, capitalism, private property rights, liquid capital markets, rule of law, all those things and the innovation that comes with it is going to beat the tyrants. It’s going to beat the tyrannies. It’s going to beat the state-owned enterprises. I’m confident we’re going to get there, but we’re going to do it in our own way and our own timeline.”

Assessing America’s hard and soft power:

“In Venezuela… I think we’ve demonstrated our hard power is pretty darn lethal and effective. Our soft power I think has atrophied. I’m not a big fan of all the protectionist gambits. I think the better bet would have been to group with our allies to jointly take on China together—to ring-fence China and promote trade with allies…. I’m glad NATO is stepping up to 5% if they actually hit those bogeys, but I think we have done more to estrange allies than to bring them toward us. And with our allies, we’re a whole lot stronger.”

Assessing the Iranian threat & Trump Administration’s MOU:

“I don’t think we can accept Iran controlling the straits and I don’t think it will be acceptable. So, I see this as an intermission. I just hope during this intermission that there’s relief in the markets that we can refill oil stocks and that the Mullahs, the IRGC doesn’t get much more money to restock for the fight that’s going to come.”

Revitalizing the Defense Industrial Base:

“We’re probably in Version 2.0 of Pentagon procurement reform. We’re getting off the cost-plus contracting for big primes. We’re bringing disruptors in. Version 3.0 is where I hope we go.

Version 2.0 is where we bring Silicon Valley economics to the defense industrial base so that private capital is being put at risk to find the R&D and bring the cost-effective weapons system at the speed we need…. Version 3.0 is what we were talking about: interoperability versus compatibility. We want to have compatible systems so that these costs are flattened, so we can get exquisite, quick-to-deploy weapons systems at low-cost structures, like other countries are doing and have shown us how to do it.

It’s just reforming this system from within Congress, from within the Pentagon is a generational effort. I think Steve Feinberg and his team are doing everything they can to make it happen. I believe there are people in Congress who really want to make this happen.”

Modernizing the workforce to meet 21^st century national defense needs:

“That’s one of my theses of my private equity firm: We’re investing in that workforce. We just bought the biggest welding school so we can train more welders across America. There has got to be a better investment in our workforce, and the private sector can do a lot to carry this burden and get people into these vocations. We can get people this education and we can have a smart immigration system that makes sure that we can meet this demand. We have the workforce and we have the intellectual power, just look at all the things that are being designed.”

Moving from ‘grievance’ to ‘growth populism’:

“This is not problem-solving populism. What happens with populism that is not tethered to principles, but that is tethered to personalities or grievances, is it doesn’t deliver the goods. It doesn’t actually solve problems. So, sooner or later, the country is going to get sick of that and want something better — like their problems being solved.

So, I see this as a moment. It’s temporary. My hope and prayer is that what comes after it is going to take us from grievance populism to growth populism, going to a type of populism that is effectively saying: ‘Let’s solve problems. Let’s stop hating each other because we all want this social contract.’

We want the dollar to prevail. We don’t want to debase everyone’s savings. We want these things and we actually know what we need to do to get there. We have just got to get better politics and the populism that gets us better politics is not here now, but hopefully it is here later.”