Ryan Trump endorsement

After Trump endorsement, Ryan lays out 'a better way'

By Nick Gass

House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) unveiled a new slogan and previewed an agenda rollout on Friday, offering an implicit contrast of Donald Trump's rhetoric a day after throwing his support behind the presumptive Republican nominee. The slogan: "A Better Way."

“Let’s face it. People know what Republicans are against," Ryan said in the weekly Republican address posted to his YouTube channel, before holding up a binder-clipped copy of the proposal with the words "A Better Way," subtitled "Our Vision for a Confident America." "Now, we’re going to give you a plan that shows you what we are for. Our ambition is a confident America where everyone has the chance to go out and succeed no matter where they start in life. That is the American idea. But right now, our country is on the wrong path. So, how do we get back on track? Well, we can get angry and we can stay angry, or we can channel that anger into action. We can start to tackle our problems before they tackle us. This is what Americans do."

"We don’t accept decline, we don’t give into division, we find a better way," Ryan declares in the video, before pivoting into specific policy issues. Ryan has previously referred to his agenda with the "Confident America" label as well.

The two-minute, 38-second address features music and graphics to drive home the Wisconsin Republican's points, which he touched upon in his column in the Janesville Gazette on Thursday in which he endorsed Trump, writing that "House Republicans are helping shape that Republican vision by offering a bold policy agenda, by offering a better way ahead," adding, "Donald Trump can help us make it a reality.

The endorsement came after Ryan dropped a bombshell last month when he announced he was "not ready" to back the presumptive nominee and that Trump had to do more to show that he could be the party's standard-bearer. By Thursday, Ryan had officially accepted the reality of a GOP led by Trump and on Friday, Ryan tried to show that he will still play a powerful role in shaping the Republican agenda.

When Ryan mentions poverty in the video, a graphic of two hands lying horizontally with a heart in the middle is shown as it flips to a vertical position of the two hands, this time with the heart replaced with a dollar sign.

"For years, decades now, Washington has spent billions of dollars on dozens of programs to fight poverty, but we have barely moved the needle. The war on poverty is a stalemate at best," Ryan said. "So we can keep doing the same things and getting the same results or instead of trapping people in poverty," Ryan says, as the word "POVERTY" appears behind vertical white bars, "we can get them on the ladder of opportunity, reward work, open our economy so everyone can make the most of their lives." At that point, the vertical lines become horizontal, representing the ladder.

The plan "takes our timeless principles: liberty, free enterprise, consent of the governed, and applies them to the problems of our time," the speaker says. "It makes clear what needs to change. You will have a clear choice on poverty, jobs, taxes, security, health care and government itself."

"After decades of executive overreach, it is time we restore our Constitution. That means we take control away from unelected bureaucrats and give it back to the people and their representatives so we are writing the laws that we live under. All of us, not government, should have the biggest role to play in our lives. That’s what this is about. That’s why a clear choice is so important, because it is easy to get caught up in all of the back and forth and the fingerpointing. But to do this, to set things right, we need to raise our gaze. We need to go bold. This is a chance to pull together and be part of something greater, a more inclusive, a more inspiring, a more confident America. This is a better way.”