He Regrets

Paul Ryan Says He Regrets Calling the Poor “Takers.” That Isn’t Enough.

By Kevin Drum

Here is Speaker Paul Ryan today in an address to a group of House interns:

Instead of playing to your anxieties, we can appeal to your aspirations....We don’t resort to scaring you, we dare to inspire you....We question each other’s ideas—vigorously—but we don’t question each other’s motives....People with different ideas are not traitors. They are not our enemies. They are our neighbors, our coworkers, our fellow citizens.

....I’m certainly not going to stand here and tell you I have always met this standard. There was a time when I would talk about a difference between “makers” and “takers” in our country, referring to people who accepted government benefits. But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong....So I stopped thinking about it that way—and talking about it that way.

The obvious pushback is that while Ryan may have stopped talking about "makers and takers," his policies are exactly the same as they've always been. After all that time spent listening, he changed his rhetoric but apparently none of his substantive views.

Which is true enough. If all Ryan is doing is telling a bunch of interns that they can get more done if they watch their language and hide their true intentions, then there's nothing much to applaud here. At the same time, it's still good to say this stuff out loud, regardless of how sincere it is. Not many people do anymore. Now, how about doing it again in front of a more important audience and with a few explicit references to Donald Trump thrown in?