Ryan launches agenda with poverty plan

Speaker Paul RyanPaul Davis RyanMcCarthy faces pushback from anxious Republicans over interview comments Pelosi and Trump go a full year without speaking Jordan vows to back McCarthy as leader even if House loses more GOP seats MORE (R-Wis.) on Tuesday began rolling out his promised election-year policy agenda, beginning with an anti-poverty plan that centers on work rather than welfare.

Questions about presumptive Republican presidential nominee Donald TrumpDonald John TrumpViolence erupts between counter-protestors, Trump supporters following DC rally Biden considering King for director of national intelligence: report Here are the 17 GOP women newly elected to the House this year MORE’s racially charged attacks on a federal judge threatened to upstage the carefully orchestrated event at a drug and alcohol rehabilitation facility in Washington, D.C.’s Anacostia neighborhood.

But the Speaker tried his best to turn the media spotlight, albeit briefly, on poverty and upward mobility issues that he’s worked on for decades.

At an apartment complex run by the House of Help City of Hope charity, Ryan and other House GOP leaders proposed overhauling federal food, housing and unemployment programs by imposing stricter work requirements and giving states a greater say in determining who gets the aid. 

“The problem we have had in government is that for too long we think the way to fight poverty is to treat its symptoms. And when we treat the symptoms of poverty, we perpetuate poverty,” Ryan, sporting no tie or jacket, told reporters after a roundtable discussion with residents in a basement of the apartment complex.

“We need to go at the root causes of poverty to break the cycle of poverty, and we should measure success based on results, outcomes.”

The anti-poverty plan is one of six planks in Ryan’s “A Better Way” agenda, which the Speaker says will show what Republicans stand for rather than what they are against. Other planks focusing on national security, tax reform, healthcare, reducing regulations and restoring the Constitution will be unveiled at similar events during the next three weeks. 

With a contentious presidential election being waged, Republicans don’t expect the policy prescriptions to become law this year. But Trump has assured Ryan he would be behind many of the proposals if he wins the White House this November.

Notably, “A Better Way” doesn’t include the hot-button issues of immigration or trade — two issues on which Ryan and Trump don’t see eye to eye.

“Do I believe that Hillary ClintonHillary Diane Rodham ClintonHere are the 17 GOP women newly elected to the House this year Why the polls were wrong Obama hits Trump for refusing to concede, says there's 'no legal basis' for challenges MORE is going to be the answer to solving these problems? I do not,” Ryan said. “I believe that we have more common ground [with Trump] on the policy issues of the day and more likelihood of getting our policies enacted with him than we do with her.”

But in the same breath, Ryan blasted Trump for saying a federal judge presiding over a Trump University fraud case could not be fair because of the judge's Mexican heritage.

Saying a person can’t do their job because of their race is the “textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said. 

The Speaker was joined at the event by several prominent GOP chairmen, including Education and Workforce Committee Chairman John Kline (R-Minn.), Ways and Means Committee Chairman Kevin BradyKevin Patrick BradyOn The Money: Biden, Democratic leaders push for lame-duck coronavirus deal | Business groups shudder at Sanders as Labor secretary | Congress could pass retirement bill as soon as this year Top Democrat: Congress could pass retirement bill as soon as this year Momentum grows for bipartisan retirement bill in divided Congress MORE (R-Texas) and Budget Committee Chairman Tom Price (R-Ga.), as well as by Bishop Shirley Holloway, the CEO of the treatment program. Holloway said Ryan has been visiting the program for years. 

Ryan’s anti-poverty plan calls for rewarding those who are working or looking for work, tailoring benefits to fit people’s needs, improving education and developing skills, making it easier for families to save money for retirement and demanding that aid programs show results. 

More specifically, the plan: 

• Calls for the renewal of the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program but would put greater pressure on states to connect people with jobs. It would also overhaul the unemployment insurance program, which hasn’t changed since the New Deal, by giving states greater flexibility to help people find work.

• Requires “work-capable” adults in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, also known as food stamps, to demonstrate that they are working or seeking a job.

• Gives states greater authority to repackage benefits if a recipient gets married, works more hours or gets a promotion, rather than forcing a one-size-fits-all approach.  

• Includes a “pay-for-results” partnership in which the government teams up with private-sector providers seeking to raise capital for effective social programs. 

• Modernizes the Pell Grant program to allows students to use grants year-round while enacting financial-aid reforms to make it easier for students to pay for college and pay back loans.

• Allows small businesses to band together and provide 401(k)s for their employees.

Ryan has been working on poverty issues ever since the early 1990s, when he was a young aide to Rep. Jack Kemp, the NFL star-turned-New York congressman who tried to make poverty and inclusiveness a central part of the GOP platform. 

However, Democrats were quick to pounce, arguing that Ryan's plan is merely a rehashing of old ideas — long promoted in Ryan's annual budget bills — that would only exacerbate poverty in the name of alleviating it.

Rep. Steny Hoyer (Md.), the Democratic whip, called it "a new spin on a bad deal."

"Ryan has rhetoric. It is good rhetoric. He sells it well," Hoyer said Tuesday during a forum on poverty hosted by the liberal Center for American Progress in Washington. "But all you have to do is look at his budgets. His budgets disinvested in education, in people, in infrastructure, in job creation."

Ryan, Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and other Republicans will unveil the second plank of their agenda, focusing on national security, during an event Thursday at the Council on Foreign Relations.

Mike Lillis contributed.