After receiving a standing ovation upon being introduced to the crowd by Townhall’s Guy Benson — who began his remarks with a joke about Democratic Rep. Alan Grayson and domestic abuse — Paul Ryan thrilled CPAC's audience on Thursday morning by dismissing Democratic concerns over economic inequality and arguing supply-side economics was good for the "soul."
“You notice they all sound alike these days?” Ryan said, referring to Democrats. “All they talk about is income inequality [which] really shows they’re out of ideas.”
“The reason they talk about income inequality is because they cannot talk about economic growth,” he continued.
Later in his remarks, Ryan slammed Democrats and the left for cheering a recent CBO report showing that Obamacare will allow more workers to opt out of the workforce if they so choose.
“We now know that this law will discourage millions of people from working,” Ryan declared. “If people leave the workforce, our economy will shrink. There will be less opportunity, not more.”
While conservatives often argue that their ideas are more in line with objective economic truth, Ryan took a different tack, claiming that his brand of small government economics is better not just for Americans’ pocketbooks but for their spirituality, too.
“The left is making a big mistake,” Ryan predicted. “What they’re offering people is a full stomach and an empty soul. People don’t just want a life of comfort. They want a life of dignity, they want a life of self determination.”
“A life of equal outcomes,” Ryan insisted, “is not nearly as enriching as a life of equal opportunity.”
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