American Idea Foundation

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Press Release

Paul Ryan discusses efforts to better fight poverty, offers advice on reducing polarization, & assesses the first months of Biden-Harris Administration

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Date: March 12, 2021

Janesville, WI – In the Fall of 2020, former Speaker of the House and American Idea Foundation President Paul Ryan was named an Honorary Fellow at the Tommy G. Thompson Center for Public Leadership. The Center, located at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, works to elevate the policies and solutions that were the cornerstones of Governor Thompson’s decades of service to the state of Wisconsin. Earlier this month, Speaker Ryan had the opportunity to talk with the Thompson Center’s Executive Director, Dr. Ryan Owens, about the policy issues that he has been focusing on since leaving the House of Representatives in 2019.

During the podcast, Speaker Ryan discussed the need for revitalizing civil society – the institutions and spaces between citizens and their government. He touched on ongoing efforts by the American Idea Foundation to highlight locally-implemented, evidence-based solutions that tackle problems like persistent poverty and the skills gap. Speaker Ryan also provided some guidance to younger Wisconsinites who are looking to make an impact in their communities.

You can listen to the Tommy G. Thompson Center Badgercast featuring Speaker Ryan by clicking here.  Some excerpts of Speaker Ryan’s answers (which have been edited slightly for clarity) follow.

A continued focus on tackling poverty:

“You mentioned Janesville, my home town. My downtown Janesville office is where the American Idea Foundation is based and that’s the Foundation that I built to focus on poverty solutions. During a lot of stages in my career, I spent a lot of time working on understanding poverty — specifically stubborn, multi-generational poverty, and understanding the policies that alleviate poverty. Near the end of my tenure, I was able to put into law through the tax code and other mechanisms, some policies that I think are really going to make a difference in the poverty space.

“And so, the American Idea foundation is really focused on advancing these poverty solutions, getting them out into the country, and building solutions that can be scaled, replicated, and repeated so that we can really put a dent in poverty and go at root causes of poverty and focus resources so that we can really make a big difference. [We can make a big difference by] making sure the Evidence Act that we wrote is well-executed and by building a big database of poverty solutions that people who want to fight poverty can go to for support and assistance. We believe in all of this… using data, analytics, and random controlled trials to measure what works and then scaling and repeating, and then making sure you don’t repeat mistakes.”

Policies that will spur economic opportunity:

“We need lifelong learning. We need people to get skills for the jobs of tomorrow [because of the] technology displacements that are occurring. And so, one of the things that we’re focused on is how do you get people into school and get their skills acquired and get them to stay through it. There is a big problem with people not graduating with their Associate’s degree, but if you can get an Associate’s degree in the 21st century, you can often get yourself into a proven career.

“Another thing that I’m really enamored with is this Catholic Charities [approach of] case management navigators that help people who are deep in poverty. [These navigators] find people where they are and then bring services and knowledge to them. Every person has a case manager that helps them build a plan to get out of poverty and work themselves out of poverty and stay out of poverty. I work with the Laboratory for Economic Opportunity (LEO) at Notre Dame and we’re running trials on this right now in places across the country to really figure out how best to do this kind of service so it can be scaled and replicated using technology, data, and analytics….

“In the 20th century, the War on Poverty was basically a bunch of government programs run by government bureaucrats and they kind of missed out on a lot of innovative ideas and proper incentive structures which have really moved the needle and so that’s the kind of thing we’re trying to incorporate. We’re essentially using free enterprise principles and applying them to the problem of poverty and I think we’re going to get a difference in outcomes.”

Advice to younger Americans on the perils of polarization and seeking out diverse perspectives:

“The reason I’m concerned [about polarization] is it’s getting so out of control and it’s being digitized and monetized with 21st century social media technology…. I try and tell young people to identify and see the fact that when you have an online presence or when you just go online, you’re inevitably going to go into some ideological cul-de-sac and you’re probably going to be just getting reinforcing views and today, media and technology, just more or less tell you what you want to know.

“We have moral relativism. We have algorithms and we have all of these sites that feed you what you’re already biased toward and that confirmation bias is now digitized and there are a lot of people who make a lot of money feeding that….”

“There’s not a great answer to how do you reduce polarization or how do you get people to reintegrate into society, other than we’ve got to find ways to revitalize civil society, which is where we live our lives and is the space between ourselves and our government. How do we, as individuals, get involved at a human level, at a personal level, with people who don’t think like us and who don’t look like us and who aren’t like us, and build lasting relationships and get a sense of empathy and a sense of understanding?

“The thing I always tell young people is don’t lead with emotions. You have two ears and one mouth, use them in that proportion and just really work on trying to understand the perspective of another person. Walk in their shoes and hopefully they’ll do the same to you and you can develop a better understanding.”

Assessing the first two months of the Biden-Harris Administration:

“I’m a little concerned… I like [President Biden]. He’s a nice person. He is an agreeable guy. He does deals. I’ve done agreements with him myself so he is naturally not opposed to finding common ground with people on the other side of the aisle and getting agreements done. The team beneath him is maybe less so.

“The thing that makes me a little concerned at this moment is on the COVID-19 bill. Ron Klain, his Chief of Staff, and others said: “Look, we made the mistake in 2009 when we tried to get Republicans to work with us on a stimulus and it took too long and then we finally did it on our own. We just want to learn from that mistake and try and cut to the chase and just ram it through….” They really didn’t ask for our participation in 2009. I remember then-Rep. Chris Van Hollen having one, 30-second conversation with me, which was: “Are you going to support this or not?…”

“This was different because COVID is a pandemic that everybody believes is a crisis that needs attending to and you had Republicans offering solutions and going down to the White House to say: “You know we agree on you know half of this stuff. Let’s work together….” Instead, they chose reconciliation which is a way of avoiding having to work with the other side and ramming it through. If you can’t get bipartisanship on something like COVID and getting the economy out of the COVID-19 pandemic, I don’t know where else you are going to find bipartisanship in this day and age. I really think they whiffed on this one…”

Issues of common ground in 2021:

“Well, I think the thing that everybody more or less agrees on is that there is a challenge and a great power struggle with China. We call this “decoupling” and that’s going to happen. I think most Republicans or Democrats who look at this issue see it similarly, which is, we have to protect ourselves and our technology from cyber-attacks, from China, and from their competition. We want the free world to be able to stay free.

“When you look at all the technologies that are rolling out there — whether it’s artificial intelligence, machine-learning, the Internet of Things, cryptocurrencies, all of these things, it’s really important that the free world is led by America and that America leads in these cutting-edge technologies because if China takes over and dominates, then they can they can really intimidate the world. They can become a ubiquitous surveillance state and it gets kind of scary at the end of the day, so where I think America has to lead – and Republicans and Democrats agree on this, is in sort strategic decoupling with China. That, to me, is a pretty big deal and I think infrastructure and some other sort of meat and potato issues, you’ll see some people coming around on.”

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Ryan & Heitkamp discuss bipartisanship in polarized time with Gov. Mitch Daniels of Purdue University

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Washington, DC – Last week, as part of Purdue University’s Presidential Lecture Series, American Idea Foundation President Paul Ryan joined a conversation with former Senator Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) entitled: “American Democracy: Where Do We Go From Here?”

The discussion was moderated by former Governor of Indiana and current President of Purdue University Mitch Daniels and featured questions from various student organizations on the key policy challenges facing our nation. Speaker Ryan talked about efforts to reduce polarization, expand pro-growth economic policies, and address the major issues facing communities around the country.

Watch the entire conversation here, read a recap from the Lafayette Journal & Courier, or check out some of Speaker Ryan’s comments (edited lightly for clarity) below.

On revitalizing civil society and meeting the unique challenges of the 21st century digital landscape:

“I taught a class on political polarization last semester at Notre Dame and if you dig deep into this, there have always been different anxieties [in society] and what the digital and social media platforms do is they really drudge these up and give life to these anxieties. And the problem we now have is that you can make money on it. You can become famous. You can make money and monetize polarization and anger and those darker kinds of emotions. They’re good for hits. They are good for clicks. They’re good for ratings and they can be monetized and what I would call “political opportunists” can seize that, jump on that, and ride that.

“This is a new challenge to self-governance in our democracy the likes that we’ve not really seen before which means each of us, not just political leaders but community leaders, civic leaders, business leaders, and academic leaders have got to work much harder to try and overcome these challenges and to revitalize civil society. [Civil society] is that space between ourselves and our government, where we actually lead our lives, leaders have to get us to put our tablets and our phones down and work with one another.

“We need to experience one another and get people out of their comfort zones, out of their homogeneous societies, and integrate with one another. These are the things I work on at my American Idea Foundation, a poverty fighting organization that seeks to try and bridge gaps, to get suburbanites into the deep-inner cities and get people from inner cities out to the deep rural areas to try and get people to cross-pollinate and find common ground so that we can find solutions. Long story short, we’ve got to find ways to revitalize civil society, put aside these new challenges, and pick leaders that endeavor to do so versus those who try to ride the division to the top.”

On how leaders can reduce polarization:

“You need to articulate a political philosophy and a view of life as a leader that seeks to unify and inform and inspire people. What I mean when I say that is this: I served in Congress for 20 years and I had a pretty big Hispanic population in Racine and Kenosha that I represented. I always did town-hall meetings and I always had an interpreter and when I would then go in the rural areas, people would give me a hard time about that and I would just ask them to come join me. I would try to explain to people how we are a melting pot, how when my Irish ancestors came over and during the famine, they could only do jobs like being firefighters, policemen, or construction workers and we were not really well received either and we need to change that, but I think there’s a history of this and it’s just been accelerated by technology.

“I think it is really incumbent upon leaders to try and articulate a vision of inclusion, assimilation, and that shows our common goals, our common humanity, a common theme of opportunity and renewal. We want a free society that is safe and prosperous and full of opportunities and this is what people are seeking.”

On bringing down the cost of health care:

“I offered the alternative to Obamacare and I offered [a replacement bill] through the House of Representatives a couple of years ago. I would do refundable tax credits, which means a type of voucher to buy health insurance for everybody. It would have more for the poor, less for the wealthy, and I would change the way the insurance rules work so that you would get more affordable insurance.

“I would have risk pools that covers the people with real, big illnesses, so if government just bumps up and pays for the people who have catastrophic illnesses, you can dramatically lower the price of insurance for everybody else. A tax credit goes really far and everybody can get affordable care. I could go on and on but I’ll leave it at that, plus transparency in pricing and quality so you have true competition.”

On why the debt should matter to younger Americans:

“This is existential. It will affect your generation, your prosperity, and your ability to have a good life and a good economy. It really kind of does come down to healthcare. If you look at our healthcare entitlement programs, those are the greatest chunk of our unfunded liabilities and we have an important social contract that needs to be met. The government made promises to people like my mom, who is on Medicare and Social Security, so the question is: How do you keep these promises? How do you fulfill the mission of these programs without totally bankrupting the country and driving us into debt?

“I think the best answer is reforming these programs by bringing more market-based solutions to them which brings more choice, more competition, and brings down the costs. I’m proud of the fact that when I ran the House and when I was Budget Chairman, every session the House passed a budget that balanced the budget and paid off the national debt. It had reforms for Medicare, important reforms to Medicaid, tax reforms, budget reforms, and spending caps. There’s a way to do this. The problem is we could never get it anywhere else but the House of Representatives in those days.

“It is really hard for politicians to touch the “third rail” of embracing these reforms. This and immigration reform are the two big ones that got away from me [as Speaker of the House]. I think if we address these two issues, we will have a great 21st century for America.

“My last comment is getting healthcare right, which is using market-based solutions in my opinion, but I think the way to do this, politically speaking — and I hate saying this because I always thought this was a political punt, is a Commission. Something like the Greenspan Social Security Commission or the Base Closing Commission. I was on Simpson-Bowles and it was declared dead on arrival just about the minute it came out with its results by President Obama and Speaker Pelosi. We need a commission that requires an up or down vote on its findings by both houses of Congress that cannot be filibustered. I think, frankly, this is the best political path to getting this done. Mitt Romney, and I think he’s got a Democratic Senator on it, has a bipartisan bill to do just that and it’s in the Senate and has been introduced in the House by the Problem Solver Caucus, so that to me is the best political solution that’s available right now.”

On Trump bringing the “Forgotten Man” and dangerous conspiracies to the Republican Party:

“First, I’d say those groups are disgusting vile groups that have no place in the Republican Party. Period. End of statement. If you asked me who the Proud Boys are or who the Oath Keepers are two years ago, I would have never heard of them. They should be disavowed, they need to be disavowed, and I completely disavow them.

“I would say that one thing President Trump did do though is he brought a lot of disaffected blue-collar workers into the Republican party. I can just tell you from running around Wisconsin, which is not unlike Indiana and North Dakota, you had the Forgotten Men and Women who felt that globalization, technology, trade, whatever had passed them by in the 20th century. My own town of Janesville: We started with a GM plant which shut down and everybody wanted to have a new, great-paying job in our town, only [to have their wages] be replaced by 30 to 40% of the salary they were making, People are really upset about that and he spoke to them and he brought them into the Republican Party. So, I can speak from these personal experiences that he brought a lot of disaffected, blue-collar workers into the party.

“He also brought those elements you mentioned and he breathed life into and gave some kind of normalcy to [these groups], which is totally wrong. This QAnon thing is just a crazy conspiracy theory, Frankly, I think we have a real problem with conspiracy theories now [and that’s] partly because of Donald Trump and because of the way the internet works, and the way these things start pinging around the universe before the truth gets out. Leaders have a responsibility to tamp those down and that’s where he would miserably fail on that front.”

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Ryan discusses the “American Dream” with Bush Institute’s The Catalyst

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By: AIF Staff

Washington, DC – In the latest edition of The Catalyst, a quarterly publication produced by the President George W. Bush Institute, American Idea Foundation President Paul Ryan discusses the importance of keeping the American Dream alive.

As part of an interview with the Bush Institute, Speaker Ryan details the work being conducted by the American Idea Foundation and elaborates on how policymakers can embrace success solutions being implemented in communities around the country. Ryan also shares his thoughts on how the Biden Administration can successfully work across the aisle on common-sense issues that expand economic opportunity.

Speaker Ryan’s full conversation with The Catalyst is accessible here and some excerpts of the discussion (edited for length and clarity) follow:

How can policymakers ensure America remains the land of opportunity?

“This is basically what I have dedicated my post-Speakership to. My whole foundation is designed on this and the work I do with the American Enterprise Institute and at Notre Dame is all focused on just this topic…. I think there are specific policies and efforts that need to be deployed because right now, there are whole generations of Americans, millions of Americans who just don’t see that the American Dream is there for them today. I think the good news in this story is that it’s right around the corner if we put the right policies and the right efforts in place to get at this.

“I frankly believe we’re on the cusp of some really good breakthroughs in poverty policies and policies designed to ignite upward mobility. If we can accomplish these goals, get these policy achievements, and change these mindsets, I really believe we can reignite this core, glorious idea that the condition of your birth doesn’t determine the outcome of your life. This idea that if you work hard, you can make it. You can you can be the best version of yourself and that the opportunity of the American Dream is alive and well and most importantly, everybody sees that it’s there for them and that they can achieve it.”

Why do public policies focused on expanding opportunity matter?

“What I really believe we can do is scale up solutions to criminal justice and just get ourselves into a virtuous cycle where we’re actually repairing things. I think Opportunity Zones is another area where we are using private capital to flood the zone in the poorest of the poor communities. It’s something that I helped put in the tax reform to revitalize – not residential properties, but revitalize communities. This is another area, and we spent a lot of time at the American Idea Foundation on this, where we can really move the needle on poverty and get capital to capital-starved areas, so that we can create opportunities and upward mobility.

“All of these efforts that we’re just talking about now have one thing in mind behind them: It’s never too late for redemption. There is always hope. And in this country, you can make a great and better life for yourself and you can leave your kids better off than you were. There are too many people who don’t believe that these days, but I really fundamentally believe if we apply ourselves to these policies that are just coming online and do more, we can reignite the American idea so that it’s really bought into…. I see things like this as helping bring us together to revive civil society and get us all focused on making sure that one another does well. And so, that to me is an inspiring movement, that to me is the politics of hope, inclusion, and inspiration. It’s what I’d like to see more of frankly.”

Why is the American Idea Foundation focusing on ideas outside of Washington, DC?

“I think the best thing that can be done is to go and find those diamonds in the rough, those programs out there that are really making a difference, learn from them, and then build, scalable, recordable models that can be replicated.

“Let’s take [an example] in Texas. Let’s take Catholic Charities in Fort Worth. I spent a pretty good deal of time with Catholic Charities Fort Worth. They have, in my mind’s eye, one of the best anti-poverty programs and they have a case-management program called the Padua Project. The Padua Project is a program that this wonderful lady named Heather Reynolds, who now is the Executive Director of Notre Dame’s Lab of Economic Opportunity (LEO), founded. The Padua Project, which is you get a Catholic Charities caseworker who is attached to no more than say 20 families to help them set up a plan to get out of poverty. It takes not just six months or eight months; it takes three or four or five years. They work with them, building a plan that is erected with incentives and disincentives, carrots and sticks, to troubleshoot and activate all the resources that are available, so that each person can work themselves out of poverty and build a better life for themselves….

“We have run a randomized clinical trial (RCT) on Padua and we have concluded it makes an enormous difference. So, setting up this sort of case-management program in the right way, with the proper incentives and controls is something that now we’ve sort of scientifically proven. We built an evidence model. We built procedures and practices. This could be built and rebuilt and replicated across the country and really move the needle on helping get people out of poverty. There’s just one example of something that has nothing to do with Washington, DC or the federal government.

“Catholic Charities has got the secret sauce. They figured out that it can be replicated. We figured out how to replicate it and now what we’re trying to do is amplify this effort. This type of program and these success stories can be seen again and again and each place will customize it a little bit, but there’ll be a base from which to operate from. So, charitable efforts to get people out of poverty aren’t having to go back and reinvent the wheel every time. They can pick up where others left off, and really, produce successes.”

How is the American Idea Foundation working with policymakers to advance pro-growth policies?

“This is the other thing that my foundation is working on, though COVID has presented a little bit of a problem, but I’ve spent a lot of my time touring poor communities around the country. I went with my friend, Bob Woodson, for a couple of years touring the poorest of the poor communities, just on listening tours and holding listening sessions. I’m trying to train other policymakers to do the same. It’s one of the things the American Idea Foundation is working and doing, which is getting people out of the comfort zones and out of their Congressional Districts, going into the poor communities. If you represent a rural area that’s not poor or a suburban area that is wealthy, go to these poor areas, listen, learn, observe, take away and build relationships, friendships, and alliances, and then go make a difference. That’s something that I was able to do and I feel I’ve really benefited from it.”

Why work on fighting poverty and expanding evidence-based policies after leaving Congress?

“It’s some of the most gratifying work that I did when I was in government, I always found myself — and when you’re Speaker of the House, you have to deal with national security and that was actually a big project of mine, but I always found on my discretionary policy time, I found myself going back to this issue. It’s just what really moves me.

“I’m a cradle Catholic, so this is a big part of your upbringing. It’s a big part of Catholic social teaching, so it’s something that I just always believed in and I just found that every time I had a little bit of spare time from managing members to scheduling legislation, this is where I wanted to spend my time. This is the legislation that really helped, that was fulfilling….

“And so, I decided after my speakership that I wanted to go work on making sure these laws were well executed. I want to make sure that these laws stand the test of time and get executed well. We didn’t write the laws as perfectly as I would want to, but that just means there’s more follow-up and more follow through. The American Idea Foundation is basically focused on this topic and in particular, it is focused on executing these laws and making sure that they’re properly designed.”

How can the Biden Administration successfully advance reforms that help the American people?

“They should start on incremental reforms that are confidence-building measures, that are bipartisan in nature, stay between the 40-yard lines and bang out a bunch of reforms. I know [President Biden’s] doing Executive Orders that appease the base. I don’t like those Executive Orders but that’s just what they’re going to do. Especially with impeachment coming down the path, that’s going to inflame the situation and it’s going to make it much more partisan, so stay within the 40-yard lines and bring a bunch of incremental reforms that get bipartisan buy-in.

“I pray to God that they keep the filibuster and my guess is [Republican Leader Mitch McConnell] will be able to get a deal to do that…. but bang out a bunch of incremental, bipartisan reforms as confidence-builders, that show the institutions are strong, that the country can still work, that we can reduce the rhetoric, and just start banging out some compromises and some reforms that fulfill the theme that Joe Biden put out in his inaugural speech. I was sitting not too far away from President Bush. The inaugural speech was pitch perfect, but, you know, words must be followed with actions. So, the actions that should follow the words are bipartisan, incremental reforms.”

How can America move forward, together, during these tough economic times?

“I think the biggest mistake that President Biden could make is using reconciliation to try and rip up the tax code that we just fixed. And look, I understand that progressives who play class warfare would like to do that but they will slow down economic growth. The tax reforms that passed were way overdue. They made us internationally competitive. They kept jobs here at home. They created more investment, but most importantly, the kind of an economy that these tax reforms created was the fastest wage growth among the lowest income-earners in the country.

“[President] Joe Biden will be able to get a nice recovery out of this. I think he needs to go easy on the regulatory footprint. I know that he’s going to go after Carbon and I think that’s regrettable but if [President] Joe Biden focuses on confidence-building measures before partisan measures and doesn’t go after the tax code, he will inherit an economy built for growth, particularly coming out of COVID and that will give people jobs. You have a lot of unemployed people, a lot of people in debt. You have to have fast economic growth to get people back into jobs and into the workforce, and to get wage growth, the policies are there, [President Biden] just needs to allow it to happen.”