Former House Speaker Paul Ryan says first-term Democratic Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez isn’t heeding advice he gave on his way out of Congress, to keep a lower profile starting off on Capitol Hill.
The Wisconsin Republican, who retired from Congress in January after 20 years, including a bit over three as speaker, said during a Forward Janesville forum, he gave the Bronx-and-Queens, New York lawmaker tips about being a good member of Congress, the GazetteXtra reported.
“I don’t think she really listened to a thing. I said, you know, ‘Just take it easy, just watch things for a while,” Ryan said of the social media wunderkind, who is trying to push House Democrats to the left through her Green New Deal and other proposals.
Away from the Capitol’s klieg lights, Ryan lamented an inability of legislators to reach compromises on big public policy issues. He cited entitlement reform, healthcare changes and immigration fixes. Improve those, “and we will have another spectacular American century,” he said.
Ryan largely deflected questions on his working relationship with President Trump. While leading the House, Democrats, then in the minority, routinely blasted him for what they called turning a blind eye to the president’s anti-free market tariffs, and course demeanor.
“We’re a little bit different,” Ryan said.
Ryan, Mitt Romney’s 2012 running mate on the Republican ticket, also lamented the state of political media.
“We have such a bitter, polarizing politics today, and it is not simply because of this person or that person. It is the era we are in, where digital technology, algorithms, are basically feeding off of anger and bad, dark emotions. There is a whole cottage industry in Washington of people who make a lot of money getting you mad, getting you upset,” he said.
The news media are going through a tumultuous time with all the “digital disruptors” and the chase for TV ratings, which feeds the situation, Ryan said.
“So we as a society have to figure out how to get out of that, how to overcome that, how to get a cohesiveness back to our society so we can tackle these big problems creatively.”
