Promoting Evidence-Based Public Policies

By: AIF Staff

Cambridge, MA – Yesterday, American Idea Foundation President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan spoke at Harvard’s Institute of Politics at an event titled: Inflation, Tax Policy, and the Way Forward. In a conversation facilitated by Professor Karen Dynan, the former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Economic Policy, Ryan detailed his thoughts on how America can prevent a debt crisis through a series of pro-growth policies and common-sense reforms. He also touched on the latest developments around the next Speaker of the House.  

To watch the entire discussion that Speaker Ryan had with Harvard students and the broader university community, click here or on the video below.

Following the conversation, Ryan talked with the Harvard Crimson about the ongoing discussion around the next Speaker of the House:

Ryan criticized the current state of national politics in relation to the economy and the rising national debt.

“You have unserious politics that is incapable of dealing with the drivers of our debt, which basically are our entitlement programs,” Ryan said.

“It’s all populism and personality, and that’s one of the reasons why people are having a hard time getting everybody to get on the same page,” he added….

“Jim’s the next guy in the queue and he’s trying it right now,” Ryan said. “I don’t think he will go 15 rounds,” he added, referencing McCarthy’s lengthy election process.

“It’s a harder hill to climb. I think [Jordan] can do it, but he’s got to flip 17 people,” he said…..

In an interview with The Crimson following the forum, Ryan dismissed the idea of a bipartisan solution. Instead, he supported Speaker pro tempore Patrick McHenry (R-N.C.) receiving “elevated powers,” to allow the legislative body to resume its duties.

“The last, last, last resort is a coalition government because that means the majority ceding its power to be a majority, ” Ryan said. “I think they’ll go to McHenry as a souped-up Speaker pro temp as the last resort before they do that.”

To learn more about Ryan’s proposal to spur economic growth and avert a debt crisis, please visit: https://www.americanrenewalbook.com/.

###

By: AIF Staff

Last week, AIF President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan visited Utah Valley University in Orem, UT to serve as a guest lecturer at an event held by the Governor Gary Herbert Institute for Public Policy. While on campus, Ryan spoke with UVU students and the wider university community about the short-term and long-term challenges facing America.

As part of his visit, Ryan spoke with Boyd Matheson for an interview that aired on Sunday Edition. During the wide-ranging discussion, Speaker Ryan talked about his message to UVU students, the need for comprehensive immigration reform starting with border security, and the state of Congress after a tumultuous week in Washington. The full interview is accessible at below and some excerpts follow.

Ryan’s message to Utah Valley University Wolverines:

“I teach economics at the University of Notre Dame but I also go around the country speaking with young people. It’s a good use of my time, frankly. I want to talk to young people about the future of their country and the need to get involved and solve the problems that we have. But it also gives me sustenance. It gives me hope, because you meet with these really wonderful, young people who are doing incredible things and it gives me hope and confidence for the future. It does me a lot of good too.

There are problems that seem intractable in this country and they want to know is there a way out of this problem. I hear more and more about our mounting federal debt that they are going to inherit. This $33 trillion debt that is coming from me and my generation. [They say:] “We have to pay off your debt from my generation before we can start having our government and our programs.” I think there’s an awakening to this problem, a desire to address it, and a lot of questions about that.

What I’m encouraged most about is young people are looking at the hyperpolarization that is engulfing our country lately and engulfing democracy and I think it’s the fact that we’re a more digital society. The digitization has pulled us apart in many different ways and the fact that young people are waking up to this and saying: “This doesn’t look right. I don’t like this. What can we do about this? This is a problem I’m sensing.” Just the fact that young people are concerned about the polarization in our country, asking what they can do about it, that is encouraging to me.”

Ryan on the motion to vacate the Speaker of the House:

“It was a total disgrace. I think it was an absolute disgrace that they kicked the Speaker of the House out for doing his job. They, being 4% of the Republican Conference, said to the other 96% that we’re going to bring Congress to a screeching halt and we’re going to kick the Speaker out for simply doing his job. And they were led by one disgraced, unethical, unprincipled demagogue and the fact that 7 people would follow him to do that is very disturbing. I know there are a lot of raw emotions in Congress. You cannot function without a Speaker of the House.

First and foremost, I think the Republican Conference needs to fix this rule because what happens with these entertainers in Congress is today’s extreme tactic is tomorrow’s normal behavior. It’s a one-way ratchet. So, you have to fix this motion to vacate if any future Speaker is to be in any way successful, because the job of Speaker, you say no more than you say yes to Members. Members are asking you for things constantly, every day, and you can’t say yes to all of these demands….

I said this to the students: If people aren’t mad at you as Speaker of the House – if 10 people aren’t mad at you at any given day – you’re not doing your job. So, if you have these carnival barkers in Congress who are going to bring it to a screeching halt because they didn’t get their way, that’s not the way our Founders set the legislature up to work so they have to fix that for any future Speaker to be successful.”

House Democrats’ role in the Motion to Vacate vote:

“I think they decided to take a political advantage over protecting the institution. I think they made the wrong decision. I think they thought: Let’s take the best player that Republicans have off the playing field. Kevin McCarthy is the best at recruiting; he’s the best at raising funds for the majority; he’s a very effective Speaker; and he helped build the majority. So I think they thought, let’s take him off the playing field because they’re not going to replace him with someone who is as good and we’re going to get a political advantage over their chaos that will make us look better by comparison. I think they chose a political advantage over institutional protection.”

Ryan on the appetite among legislators to address our national debt:

“We know what to do to solve this debt crisis. I passed four budgets in the House that balanced the budget and paid off the debt. This book that we wrote at the American Enterprise Institute, a think tank I work at, is the latest version of showing how we do it. There are other ways to solve this but the point being is we can solve this debt crisis, we can get our debt under control – it will take us time – but we have fundamentally, unserious politics.

But to answer your question: Are there people in Congress today who know how to solve this problem and are willing to solve this problem? Yes, but there aren’t enough of them. That’s part of the problem. And it takes leadership.

Right now, we do not have presidential leadership, frankly, from either front-runner for the nominations that are willing to take on this challenge. They would rather play demagogic, populist politics on the debt crisis than actually leaning in, telling people hard truths, and solving the problem. The problem with our debt crisis is the longer you delay solving it, the uglier that your options and your solutions become. So that’s why it’s so much in our interest to get ahead of this problem, solve it on our own terms as a country, and solve it in a bipartisan way rather than kick the can down the road and then do emergency surgery in a debt crisis when the bond markets have turned on us.”

Saving our safety net will help our most vulnerable:

“Republicans and Democrats agree that we want a safety net. We want these programs. We, in society, think this is a good thing. The problem is these programs were written in 20^th century in ways that are proving unsustainable in the 21^st century. They go back to like the 1960’s and the 1930’s so we know so much more now about how better to run these programs, to fulfill these missions, than we did then. So applying these new ideas, technologies, and techniques to running these programs and changing them is how you solve the debt crisis, and we can do it in a way that doesn’t affect the benefits for people in and near retirement — that’s the good news in this story, if we act soon….

On the need for civility in public discourse:

“I think we need to put a premium on civility and we need to start talking about civility and what it takes to have a civil society. So, I think we need to bring to the front of our dialogue and the front of our minds: Civility, because this digital culture we live in is very uncivil and that is what is ripping us apart. If we can keep our society bounded, if we can keep each other, from different walks of life, in this common society, in a civil society, there is no stopping this country.”

For more information on Speaker Ryan’s efforts to strengthen our social safety, check out American Renewal.

By: AIF Staff

Milwaukee, WI — On Thursday, AIF President and former Speaker of the House Paul Ryan took part in a conversation with Charlie Sykes at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee as part of the University’s Distinguished Lecture Series. In a wide-ranging discussion sponsored by the Tommy Thompson Center on Public Leadership, Ryan shared his thoughts on how to save America’s social safety net, ways to expand economic opportunity, and some of the major battles he waged while in Congress. He also detailed the policy recommendations outlined in the AEI-published book, American Renewal. 

Some interviews and articles associated with the event are excerpted below.

UWM Report: UWM students explore issues with former U.S. Speaker of the House Paul Ryan

Ryan spoke to a gathering of about 25 students as part of the Meals with Meaning series hosted by UWM Student Involvement. The intimate gathering happened just before Ryan delivered the UWM Distinguished Lecture, co-hosted with the Tommy G. Thompson Center on Public Leadership….

Many students attending were interested in Ryan’s stance on economic issues while he served in Congress. Ryan told the group he had intended to have a career as an economist rather than a long tenure in politics. The students varied in their political preferences and majors, but about a third were studying economics….

Sophomore Kate Jakubowski said she grew up interested in politics from a young age, even though she’s currently a double major in music performance and history. In the last year, she said, she had the chance to meet the Wisconsin Gov. Tony Evers and senators Tammy Baldwin and Cory Booker.

Ryan’s remarks at the event were not what she had expected.

“The thing that stuck with me the most that he really emphasized bipartisanship, and that’s something I feel like is missing in these days in Congress,” Jakubowski said. “And so I really appreciate his willingness to talk about that and to say that he has worked with people across the aisle….

Following the student meeting, Ryan also greeted Milwaukee leaders and UWM faculty in the Fireside Lounge before speaking to a crowd of just over 300 gathered for the Distinguished Lecture, moderated by political commentator Charlie Sykes.

In his discussion with Sykes, Ryan touched on a need to find and address the root causes of tuition inflation in higher education and also prioritize STEM disciplines. “UWM does pretty well in STEM,” he said. “I love the School of Freshwater Sciences here. I’ve toured it several times.”

WISN: On Upfront, Ryan shares thoughts on debt ceiling, entitlements, & polarization  

In an interview with WISN’s Matt Smith for Upfront, former Speaker Paul Ryan talked about his visit to UW-Milwaukee to discuss the AEI-produced book American Renewal, the debt ceiling, and his relationship with Speaker Kevin McCarthy. On entitlements, Ryan said:

“The current debate is awful. It is not serving anybody and what troubles me most is the current President and the last President are demagoguing this issue. What happens when you try to scare people with reckless rhetoric is we have bankruptcy and then these programs get cut for the current seniors. Let’s not forget Medicare and Social Security go insolvent in a decade which will mean cuts to these programs and which will lead to a debt crisis.

“The smart thing to do, knowing that is coming, is to step ahead of the problem, reform the programs so they can keep the promises [to current seniors], and be there for the next generation and avoid a debt crisis…. I passed four budgets in Congress and we lived to tell about it. You can propose reforms and you can vote on these reforms and politically survive. The problem is a lot of people lost that lesson…. [You can] keep the programs like they’re working today for those in or near retirement but for those 60 years old and below, you have to change your programs because they will be bankrupt by the time we retire.”

TMJ4: Ryan says Biden, Trump ‘playing politics’ with Social Security, Medicare

TMJ4’S Chief Political Reporter Charles Benson caught up with Ryan before his speaking event at UW-Milwaukee Thursday night.

Benson: Do you think Republicans should be having more conversations on college campuses?

Ryan: Absolutely, I do. That’s one of the reasons why I’m here. These are our future leaders, and our future leaders need to be part of a policy debate about the future.

Speaker Ryan left Congress four years ago after deciding not to seek re-election, but he still likes talking about policy issues – especially the need to keep Medicare and Social Security solvent….

“By demagoguing these issues, which I think both Trump and Biden are doing, they’re forfeiting the leadership mantle,” Ryan said. “They’re playing politics with these issues.”

Washington Post: Ryan says Biden, Trump put country at risk by swearing off changes to Medicare, Social Security

Former House speaker Paul D. Ryan (R-Wis.) accused both President Biden and former president Donald Trump of putting the country at financial risk by swearing off making changes to Medicare and Social Security.

“Biden and Trump — and I lump them in the same sentence — Biden and Trump are doing the opposite of leadership,” Ryan said in an interview Tuesday. “They’re trying to scare people, and they’re playing political demagoguery with one of the most important issues facing our country this century….”

Ryan said he was frustrated that some of his fellow Republicans were walking away from an issue that they rallied around during his time as a top-ranking member of the House.

“Do I think our party has done some backsliding? Yes, because of Trump populism,” Ryan said in a telephone interview. “But I still believe there’s a very big core in our party that understands the magnitude of this issue, wants to be responsible and fix this problem before it gets ugly and out of control….”

Ryan said Republicans and Democrats need to address the cost of Medicare and Social Security now because the fiscal problem will become more difficult to solve as time passes. He said Republicans should not fear the issue because they survived politically when House Republicans passed his budget proposals.

“I think what happened in my party is people got intimidated by the politics. And Trump, who has chosen to engage in demagogic entitlement populism, has led a lot of people away from being responsible and from doing the right thing,” he said. “And the consequence of that, much like Biden’s politics, is to push us closer to bankruptcy.”

Fox 6: Ryan: If Trump is GOP presidential nominee, ‘we are going to lose’

Former Speaker Paul Ryan is warning Republicans they’ll lose if they nominate Donald Trump for president. In a new interview with FOX6, Ryan also defended his call for changes to Medicare and Social Security.

Ryan was in Milwaukee Thursday, Feb. 23 to speak at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee and to talk about the new book he edited, “American Renewal….”

Ryan also defended some of the arguments laid out in a new book he edited. “American Renewal” lays out a conservative vision for the future, including changes for Medicare and Social Security….

“Every one of these proposals says don’t make changes to people who are in or near retirement presently. But, you need to make changes for those of us in the younger generation for two reasons: So that we don’t go bankrupt as a country, and these programs exist for them; but also, so you can cash flow the current promises to current seniors.

“The dangerous rhetoric that we’re seeing right now in Washington by both Presidents Biden and Trump is this demagoguery saying don’t touch these programs. With that, the other way of saying that is: ‘Let them go bankrupt and watch current seniors get hurt.’ Remember, within a decade, both Medicare and Social Security go insolvent.”

“So, that’s why we’re saying let’s get ahead of this problem. Let’s reform these programs so that they work better so that they’re solvent, so that we can keep the promises that have already been made to current seniors,” Ryan added. “The problem is that took me three or four sentences. It wasn’t as easy as demagoguing entitlement reform, which is what our current and former president are doing. It’s reckless. It’s the opposite of leadership. And my point is, we need to step ahead of this problem as a country, guarantee these benefits for current seniors and reform these programs, so they don’t go bankrupt.”

Click here to download a copy of American Renewal: A Conservative Plan to Strengthen the Social Contract and Save the Country’s Finances. 

###