‘There are two things you have to do to get this debt under control’
House Speaker Paul Ryan said entitlement reform is going to be a top priority in 2018 for GOP lawmakers Thursday.
Ryan said he believes current policies are preventing people from breaking out of poverty
The House Speaker said “there are two things you have to do to get this debt under control: reform the entitlement programs, which are on autopilot, and grow the economy.”
“One of the entitlement reforms we see that is necessary is getting people out of this poverty trap where we’re actually trapping people in poverty, disincentivizing work,” the Wisconsin Republican said. “You know we have been talking about tax rates all over the place — you know — the corporations pay this tax, the small businesses pay this tax — you know who basically pays the highest tax rate in America? It’s the single mom with two kids getting $24,000 in benefits who will lose eighty cents on the dollar is she goes and takes a job.”
Ryan said he’s confident the GOP’s efforts to pass tax reform will help stimulate job growth that will incentivize independence from welfare. He added he hopes Congress will take strides to help Americans gain the skills needed to fill positions both newly created positions and jobs being vacated by the aging population.
“Baby boomers are retiring — I did my part — but we need to have higher birth rates in this country and we have fewer people following them in the workforce,” Ryan said. “We had something like a 90 percent increase in the retirement population in America, but only a 19 percent increase in the working population of America.”
The speaker said it’s problematic the country is “falling short on its potential” and action needs to be taken to increase the number of people seeking training, education and employment.
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