Paul Ryan Apologizes For Calling The Poor ‘Takers’ [View all]

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Paul Ryan Apologizes For Calling The Poor ‘Takers’

by Alice Ollstein at Think Progress

http://thinkprogress.org/politics/2016/03/23/3762699/paul-ryan-trump-2016/

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In a Capitol Hill speech billed as a repudiation of the tone of the 2016 election, House Speaker Paul Ryan apologized for his own past rhetoric about poor people of color.

“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,” he said. “But as I spent more time listening, and really learning the root causes of poverty, I realized I was wrong. ‘Takers’ wasn’t how to refer to a single mom stuck in a poverty trap, just trying to take care of her family. Most people don’t want to be dependent.”

Later, in response to a question from a Capitol Hill intern, he went further, saying of his past characterization of low-income Americans: “I was callous and I oversimplified and castigated people with a broad brush. There is a lot of that happening in America today.”

For several years — as he has pushed policies to slash Medicaid funding, food stamps, unemployment insurance, and other social programs — Ryan has repeatedly referred to poverty as a “culture problem” among people in “inner cities,” where “generations of men [are] not even thinking about working.”



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