House Speaker Paul D. Ryan said Tuesday that it’s Democrats, not Republicans, who are to blame for trickle-down economics that have given a boost to the wealthy while leaving the middle class stagnant.
Mr. Ryan, speaking about President Obama’s economic record ahead of the final State of the Union address of Mr. Obama’s tenure, discounted the White House’s role in the belated rebound.
“I think the Federal Reserve has done more. And by the way, I think the Federal Reserve has given us, in combination with Obama policies, more regulations, higher taxes, more uncertainty — has given us trickle-down economics. This is liberal-style,” Mr. Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said. “What’s happening is people at the high end are doing pretty darn well because of loose money from the Fed, and all these regulations, all this uncertainty, all these taxes, is giving us weak economic growth.”
Tackling poverty has been a focus for Mr. Ryan, and he said on those kinds of measures the economy is still failing.
“Wages are stagnant, middle-income wages are flat, 46 million people are still living in poverty today, among the highest poverty rates in a generation,” he said. “This is not the signs of a recovery. This is not the signs of a healthy economy. These are the signs of a weak economy.”
Mr. Obama took office amid the Wall Street collapse and oversaw the loss of millions of jobs in his first months in office. He pressed Congress to approve an $800 billion stimulus, which he said kept the recession from turning into a depression.
While job losses were deeper than he predicted, the picture reversed in early 2010, and the economy has now added jobs for 70 straight months.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
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