Real Clear Politics
“He gave us a message of hope three years ago of uniting, not dividing. And what we’re getting now are class warfare. We’re getting very polarizing rhetoric that puts class against class, pits people against one another. And I would simply say sowing social unrest and class resentment does not make America stronger, it makes America weaker,” Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) told Greta van Susteren on FOX News. Ryan is the chairman of the House Budget Committee and delivered a speech at the Heritage Foundation on Wednesday.
Paul says this is an ideological thing with President Obama.
“It strikes me as an ideological thing, and also as a political decision I think he’s made. He decided not to work with Congress by sending us a jobs bill that had a chance of passing by sending us ideas that he knows we agree with him on. He sent us another stimulus. Then he spent months going around the country and impugning people’s motives, setting up straw man arguments, basically saying Republicans are for dirty air and dirty water and against people with health insurance. Basically picking a partisan conflict versus going for compromise, but more to point, Greta. I think it’s the rhetoric of class division that is especially destabilizing. This is not the American idea. We believe in a system of upward mobility. We believe in a system to get the hurdles out of people’s way so that they can rise in society. We don’t believe in talking to people like they’re stuck in some class and the government is here to cope with their station in life. And I think that’s the kind of rhetoric [Obama] is using, which (a), gives you bad policies, (b), it sows social unrest, and (c), it doesn’t work.”
Paul Ryan tells FOX News that class warfare and rhetoric of the ilk should not be an excuse for not getting the job done.
“We passed our budget in the House. We reformed taxes and got rid of the loopholes and crony welfare, and we stopped subsidizing wealthy people. We have a push to get more domestic scores of energy. We did these things to get prosperity to fuel economic growth and to get upward mobility in society. What I’m saying is it is a convenient to feed into the class warfare and class envy, but it is no substitute for actually getting the job done on growing the economy and creating growth. Unfortunately I don’t think at the end of the day he’s interested in seeing these policies through, otherwise why wouldn’t he pick them up and pass them?” Paul Ryan said.
Paul Ryan also made clear that equal opportunity and equal outcome are completely different ideologies. Ryan says President Obama has the philosophy of “equal outcome.”
“I think it’s not good for the country,” Ryan said of Obama’s rhetoric and ideology. “I think it does come from a difference in philosophy, which is the American idea, it’s about equality of opportunity so people can make the most of their lives.”
“Focusing on class warfare, that I think flows from a philosophy that government ought to equalize the results of people lives instead of equalizing outcomes. Equal opportunity versus equal outcomes, very different political philosophy. And I think the policies that he’s been pushing are more in this political philosophy area and the result of it is more wealth redistribution, higher punitive taxes on job creators, less prosperity. And still, instead of focusing on the kinds of ideas that actually create jobs and economic growth, instead of working with us on these ideas, we’re praying on people’s sense of anxieties,” Paul concluded.