Full Remarks: Speaker Ryan Holds Millennial Town Hall at Georgetown - See more at: http://www.speaker.gov/press-release/full-remarks-speaker-ryan-holds-millennial-town-hall-georgetown#sthash.31jDWPAH.dpuf
Today, House Speaker Paul Ryan (R-WI) held a town hall with millennials at the Georgetown Institute of Politics and Public Service, where he made the case for why young people should believe in conservatism. Speaker Ryan began the town hall by delivering remarks, followed by Q&A with students in the audience and participating online. Below are Speaker Ryan's full opening remarks as prepared for delivery, which can be viewed here:
"John, Kayla--thank you for the introduction. A special thanks to S. E. Cupp for inviting me--and to all of you here for indulging me. I look forward to answering your questions. But first, I want to make my case: why support Republicans. I'm going to go out on a limb and assume the thought had not occurred to most of you. So here's how I'd sum it up. The America that you want is the America that we want: open, diverse, dynamic. It is what I call a confident America, where the condition of your birth does not determine the outcome of your life--where we tackle our problems together so that all of us can thrive.
"How do we get there? How do we do that? That is why I am here today.
"Building that America is the reason that I got into politics, though I never thought I'd run for office when I was your age. Back then, I wanted to be an economist, which goes to show just how much fun I was in those days. But my last year in college, I got offered a job on Capitol Hill, where I had interned the summer before. And, seniors, you're learning this just now: The first time anybody offers to hire you for anything, it is a huge relief--and somewhat of a shock.
"But I almost didn't take it. What I really wanted to do was to go to Colorado and spend a few years enjoying the outdoors. I thought I'd climb mountains and wait tables in the summer--and in the winter I'd join the ski patrol. Well, when I mentioned this idea to my mom, she wasn't exactly enthusiastic. She said to me, 'If you do that, you'll just become a ski bum. One year will turn into three, three into six, and before you know it, you'll be 30 years old'--which, to 22-year-old me, sounded ancient.
"So I took the job. And I quickly realized that public service was where I could have the biggest impact. You could make a real difference in people's lives--and at a young age. So when the congressman who represented my district decided to leave the House, I ran for his seat. I was just 28 years old. And to everybody's surprise--myself included--I won.
"I went into politics because I wanted to solve problems. I entered Congress in 1999. I don't even want to know how old all of you were back then. But it was a different time. Cell phones were a lot bigger--and so was my hair. And the hot-button issue was Social Security. I got involved because I wanted to save it. For me, it was personal.
"My dad died when I was 16, so my family relied on his Social Security survivor benefits. I used them to help pay for college. My mom used them to help her start a new career. She had just turned 50, and now she had to start over. So every weekday, she'd get on a bus and ride 40 miles to Madison to go to school. She was able to learn new skills and start a small business. So I knew what Social Security had done for my family. And I wanted all Americans--of all generations--to have that same level of security.
"But this speaks to a larger point. When I was growing up, I lived in a country where if you got up every day and gave it your all, it would pay off. You could find a rewarding job. You could start your own business. You could buy a home and raise a family in a nice neighborhood. And no matter where you came from, no office or distinction was too high for your reach. Anything was possible, if you were willing to make the effort. And if life threw you a curve ball, you would get the support you needed.
"That, I think, is the kind of country we all want to live in. And you know better than most that it doesn't just happen automatically. You grew up during the Great Recession. You saw for yourselves how opportunity can disappear in a moment. When I talk to college graduates these days, it's clear they're still living with the consequences of the crash. They studied hard, but they can't find a job that matches their skills. They're working hard, but they're not getting that promotion they hoped for. They want to buy a house, but they can't afford it. They want to save for retirement, but they can't sacrifice the money.
"So the question is, how do we open up opportunity for everyone in this country? And what, specifically, is the government's role here? As you might have heard, this is a matter of dispute. And it has been for some time.
"I just want to say my Democratic friends are good people who love their country. I work with them every day to find common ground and make progress where we can. But there are real disagreements between us. And we should be clear about them--because then, when the time comes, the people can decide which way they want to go. And I believe many of our current policies are shutting young people out of our economy by taking decisions away from people--from the individual.
"This is the difference: We do not believe we should be governed by our betters--that elites in Washington should make all the big decisions--that they should pick winners and losers--that's a recipe for a closed economy--for cronyism. We want an open economy where there's equal opportunity for all . . . where more people can participate and rise by their talents . . . where the individual can put their ideas and their aspirations to the test.
"This contrast can be hard to visualize, so here's an example.
"Say you have an idea for a new business, and you want to create a startup. Well, you need to raise money. And if you want to raise money on the Internet--as many people do--you typically have two options: Ask for donations or loans. But there's also a third option: Offer stock. Sounds intimidating, but it's not really. It's basically just crowdsourcing for investors. And it works for a lot of people because when you're not making money, you don't owe your investors anything--unlike debt. But a few years ago, the Securities and Exchange Commission got involved. It thought this kind of crowdfunding was too risky for small-dollar investors--that is, people like you--and said they couldn't do it. Instead of laying down rules to make it safe--so people like you could participate--the SEC ruled it out of bounds. That's the difference between giving information to people and making decisions for them.
"That's why we passed a law to make the SEC change course. We said, 'Write rules so more people can participate. Don't outlaw it.' And what happened? More people got to invest, and more start-ups got to expand. Now, we're still working out the kinks in the law. We're actually considering a bill this week. But I would argue that this shows the kind of mindset we need in government. The point of having rules is to open up opportunity, not to shut it off. It is to give people the information they need so they can take action. It is that information that turns you into an investor or an inventor or an entrepreneur. And that's how we solve problems in this country--from the bottom up, not the top down. Now we need to take this mindset and apply it to the challenges of the day. Here are just a few more examples . . .
"I'm all for helping people pay for health insurance. But the health care law literally outlawed millions of plans that were working. And now millions are struggling to pay their premiums. If you're young and healthy, you don't need a plan with all the bells and whistles. You just need basic coverage. So why not open up our health care system so people can pick a plan that works for them?
"Student debt is now bigger than credit card debt. And so many of my friends on the other side say we should make community college free. But what if you don't want to go to community college? Why don't we break up the college cartel and let students try different options? Why don't we give our students a choice?
"We've been fighting the War on Poverty for over 50 years now. We spend billions of dollars each year on 92 different programs. And yet poverty is not all that much lower than when we started. But if you look in our local communities, there are actually thousands of people fighting poverty on the front lines every day--and winning. Instead of trying to replace them, why doesn't government support them?
"There are over 2 million people in our prisons. Many of them are not hardened criminals. They're not violent. A lot of them are just people who made a mistake. I think we need to let more people earn a second chance at life. Instead of locking people up, why don't we unlock their potential?
"The good news is, we don't just have to ask these questions. We can do these things. That is why, right now, Republicans are working on a policy agenda to address some of the challenges I have discussed here today. If we do not like the direction our country is going--and we do not--then we owe the country an alternative. We owe it to you.
"I know you have heard people like me say that yours may be the first generation to be left worse off than the one before it. That does not have to happen, and it will not have to happen if we seize this moment.
"Maybe this will help sum up things up. At the Democrats' national convention in 2012, they showed a video that said, 'Government's the only thing that we all belong to.' I think they had it exactly backward. Government is the only thing that belongs to all of us. It is not supposed to manage the people, but to serve them. And I think this mindset is totally in sync with the way you live your lives. It's almost a cliché to say your generation is the most technologically savvy we've ever seen. If I can log in to Netflix--that's a win for me. And you know better than anyone that technology is not a toy or distraction. It is what allows you to focus on the essentials: faith, family, work. I would argue government is supposed to do the same thing.
"These days, with technology, you are used to customizing your everyday life. So why on earth would you want to support a governing philosophy that seeks to take away your right and ability to customize, individualize, or decide critical aspects of your life, like your health care or your education? You can't say government is of the people when it is imposing its decisions on the people.
"Government does not impose community. The people create it--and government's role is to protect it. Only we the people can build a confident America. So today I am asking for your help. We need your ideas. We need you to create the next Uber or Lyft or Twitter or Snapchat . . . or to raise the next generation . . . or to run for office . . . or to get involved in our community . . . or do all of these things.
"Because that's who we are--a country that sees the potential in every human being and does everything we can to bring that potential to life. Thank you."
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