Capitol Hill Blue Forums Political Issues Campaign 2016

HOUSE SPEAKER PAUL RYAN spent the past week announcing policy plans designed to fill the void left by the party’s presumptive nominee, Donald Trump, who has virtually no detailed policy proposals save for outrageous propositions like building a giant wall on the U.S.-Mexico border at no cost to the U.S. taxpayer.

But Ryan’s plans are themselves little more than platitudes and proverbs, offering few actionable policies.

Take the poverty plan. It states that we should “expect work-capable adults to work or prepare for work in exchange for welfare benefits,” something that’s already required under the 1996 welfare reform law.

Under “Policy Recommendations,” Ryan calls on Congress to use the next authorization of the nation’s welfare programs “to strengthen the focus on work and work preparation by requiring states to engage more recipients in activities that will help them advance up the economic ladder.”

What exactly that means is anyone’s guess. Does he mean more job training, a temporary public works program, government-backed internships? If Ryan is proposing to toughen work requirements or the sanctions against people who fail to meet them, why doesn’t he explain that in any detail? Who will it apply to, how will states implement it, and what is the timeline for that implementation? What’s the proposed budgetary impact?

“The language is incredibly vague, it’s full of mantras and platitudes and old Republican talking points,” Rebecca Vallas, a poverty expert at the Center for American Progress, told The Intercept. “At points he acknowledges problems that exist — the importance of child care in terms of removing barriers to employment for parents who have children — … and then he has no solutions for it.”