GBUS Section: 2
Article Title: How Paul Ryan Plans to Tackle Poverty
URL: http://www.cnbc.com/id/101882697 Date Published: Sep. 21, 2014
Summary: This article focused on Paul Ryan views on cutting government spending to try to fix poverty in America. Paul Ryan feels that to tackle anti-poverty efforts the government does not need to cut any of it’s spending but rather consolidate federal spending programs and make them work better rather than getting into battles of proper funding levels of the status quo because this leads to talk about budget numbers that lead no where. This is seen as a shock to some because Ryan is seen as a Politian who heavily favors government spending cuts. Nonetheless, Ryan wants to put these programs into a single fund that gives the states an opportunity grant, which collapses 11 programs into 1 funding stream that goes to the states. From there, his hope is that the states will have more innovative ideas on programs that will get people from welfare to work. Eventually leading to a reform of the status quo.
Critical Thinking: As I read the article, I felt that Paul Ryan’s stance on poverty was a deliberate move that will be used as a stepping-stone for his future; which is to mount a run to the White House in 2016. Throughout the article, there was an underlying tone about trying to “soften” his image and cast him in a light that shows he is able to be bi-partisan and work with Democrats, not just Republicans. I feel this because, Ryan, someone who has built a reputation of wanting to cut government spending to now showing change about the issue signals to me that he wants to show his colleagues as well as voters that he is open-minded and focused on fixing the issue of poverty rather being another stubborn Politian who is incapable of change and adapting. Moving on to the content of the article, I felt that Ryan could have further elaborated and gone into more depth of his program. Although he talked about putting programs into a funding stream that goes to the states which would lead to programs that will get people
