Top 150 Paul Ryan Quotes (2025 Update)
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101. “I think it is inflationary. I think it actually is counterproductive in many ways. You end up costing jobs from people who are at the bottom rung of the economic ladder.”

— Paul Ryan

102. “Mom was 50 when my Dad died. She got on a bus every weekday for years, and rode 40 miles each morning to Madison. She earned a new degree and learned new skills to start her small business. It wasn’t just a new livelihood. It was a new life.”

— Paul Ryan

103. “I accept the calling of my generation to give our children the America that was given to us, with opportunity for the young and security for the old – and I know that we are ready.”

— Paul Ryan

104. “The man assumed office almost four years ago – isn’t it about time he assumed responsibility?”

— Paul Ryan

105. “So, in Europe, they’re cutting people’s retirement and health benefits. And that’s what we want to avoid from happening. They’re raising taxes, entering a recession. That’s the kind of economic program that President Obama has put in place.”

— Paul Ryan

106. “If you’re running for president, you’ve got to do a lot of things to line up a candidacy. I’ve not done any of those things. It’s not my plan. My plan is to be a good chairman of the House Budget Committee and fight for the fiscal sanity of this nation.”

— Paul Ryan

107. “The problem with our deficit is not because Americans are taxed too little. The problem with the deficit is because Washington spends too much money. We have got to stop spending money we don’t have.”

— Paul Ryan

108. “I never asked for stimulus.”

— Paul Ryan

109. “But just because we can’t fix Obamacare doesn’t mean we can’t start to get rid of its worst features. On Thursday, the House will take up a bill to define ‘full time’ as 40 hours per week, so more people can work full time.”

— Paul Ryan

110. “The greatest threat to Medicare is Obamacare, and we’re going to stop it.”

— Paul Ryan

111. “If borrowing and spending all this money led to more jobs than we would be at full employment already.”

— Paul Ryan

112. “We are all representatives of the American people. We all do town hall meetings. We all talk to our constituents. And I’ve got to tell you, the American people are engaged. And if you think they want a government takeover of health care, I would respectfully submit you’re not listening to them.”

— Paul Ryan

113. “Conventional wisdom on government’s role in inequality often has it backwards. Tax reforms have resulted in a more progressive federal income tax; government transfer payments have become less progressive.”

— Paul Ryan

114. “Hey, I’m a Catholic deer hunter, I am happy to be clinging to my guns and my religion.”

— Paul Ryan

115. “Every now and then, President Obama sorta drops his veil. He’s less coy about his philosophy, he sort of reveals his true governing philosophy, what he really believes.”

— Paul Ryan

116. “I tend to avoid the shows that focus on politics, just to get a break from it all, i tried watching the first couple episodes of ‘House of Cards,’ but I thought it was way over the top. Members of Congress aren’t anything like Frank Underwood. Most of us are far less interesting.”

— Paul Ryan

117. “What did the taxpayers get out of the Obama stimulus? More debt. That money wasn’t just spent and wasted – it was borrowed, spent, and wasted.”

— Paul Ryan

118. “Do we believe that the goal of government is to promote equal opportunity for all Americans to make the most of their lives? Or, do we now believe that government’s role is to equalize the results of peoples lives?”

— Paul Ryan

119. “We’re saying no changes for Medicare for people above the age of 55. And in order to keep the promise to current seniors who’ve already retired and organized their lives around this program, you have to reform it for the next generation.”

— Paul Ryan

120. “The president has declared that the debate over government-controlled health care is over. That will come as news to the millions of Americans who will elect Mitt Romney so we can repeal Obamacare.”

— Paul Ryan

121. “I’m a person that can get along with people. I like people who believe passionately in things even if they’re not the things I agree with.”

— Paul Ryan

122. “Ultimately, the law will collapse under its own weight. Until then, we have to start building a better health care system in its place. And we need to start with a new principle: Put the patient in the driver’s seat. That’s how we can build a healthy economy.”

— Paul Ryan

123. “Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment. I think that should be absolutely disavowed. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”

— Paul Ryan

124. “What we heard today was not fiscal leadership from our Commander-in-Chief, what we heard today was a political broadside from our Campaigner-in-Chief.”

— Paul Ryan

125. “A Clinton presidency is an Obama third term. And it’s very difficult for them to get away from it.”

— Paul Ryan

126. “And the biggest, coldest power play of all in Obamacare came at the expense of the elderly.”

— Paul Ryan

127. “If we didn’t propose these reforms, we would not have proposed a budget that got the debt under control.”

— Paul Ryan

128. “I voted to send people to war.”

— Paul Ryan

129. “Look, I am not worried about Washington cutting too much spending too fast. I mean, the kinds of spending cuts we’re talking about just right now are $100 billion out of a $3.7 trillion budget.”

— Paul Ryan

130. “Look, of course people are scared of entitlement reform because every time you put entitlement reform out there, the other party uses it as a political weapon against you.”

— Paul Ryan

131. “Look, only in Washington is not raising taxes considered a tax cut. Nobody’s getting a tax cut here. We’re not cutting taxes. We’re preventing tax increases from occurring.”

— Paul Ryan

132. “Now it’s a war on women; tomorrow it’s going to be a war on left-handed Irishmen or something like that.”

— Paul Ryan

133. “Obama is trying to paint us as a caricature, as if we’re some bizarre individualists who are hardcore libertarians. It’s a false dichotomy and intellectually lazy. Of course we believe in government. We think government should do what it does really well, but that it has limits.”

— Paul Ryan

134. “There is a consensus of willing leaders from both parties coalescing around the right way forward in health care. Reform should address government-imposed inequities and barriers to true choice and competition.”

— Paul Ryan

135. “I have never seen opponents so silent about their record, and so desperate to keep their power.”

— Paul Ryan

136. “I don’t have the time. It would take me too long to go through all of the math.”

— Paul Ryan

137. “Are we interested in treating the symptoms of poverty and economic stagnation through income redistribution and class warfare, or do we want to go at the root causes of poverty and economic stagnation by promoting pro-growth policies that promote prosperity?”

— Paul Ryan

138. “I do politics in order to do policy.”

— Paul Ryan

139. “PACs corrupt the system. They handle vast amounts of money and the money corrupts.”

— Paul Ryan

140. “Since taking office, President Obama has signed into law spending increases of nearly 25 percent for domestic government agencies – an 84 percent increase when you include the failed stimulus. All of this new government spending was sold as ‘investment.’”

— Paul Ryan

141. “Throughout human history, the American Idea has done more to help the poor than any other economic system ever designed.”

— Paul Ryan

142. “Look, the president is elected to lead and to face the country’s biggest challenges. The country’s biggest challenge domestically speaking, no doubt about it, is a debt crisis, and I’m really hoping that he is going to give us a budget that tackles this debt crisis.”

— Paul Ryan

143. “Mr. Vice President, I know you’re under a lot of duress to make up for lost ground but I think people would be better served if we don’t keep interrupting each other.”

— Paul Ryan

144. “In Pennsylvania, 38 percent of Pennsylvania seniors chose to get their Medicare from a plan called Medicare Advantage. It’s their choice. Forty-seven percent of them are going to lose it under ‘Obamacare’ according to Medicare by 2017.”

— Paul Ryan

145. “President Obama’s reckless defense cuts that are hanging over our cloud, hanging over the horizon could put almost 44,000 jobs at stake right here in Pennsylvania. we are not going to let that happen. You know why? Because No. 1, national defense is the first priority of the federal government.”

— Paul Ryan

146. “None of us have to settle for the best this administration offers – a dull, adventureless journey from one entitlement to the next, a government-planned life, a country where everything is free but us.”

— Paul Ryan

147. “This is a government takeover of our healthcare system. It is the government basically running the entire healthcare system, turning large insurers into de facto public utilities, depriving people of choice, depriving people of options, raising people’s prices, raising taxes when we need new jobs.”

— Paul Ryan

148. “We do not have a functioning market in the true sense of the word in health care. That’s a layer of transparency that’s sorely needed in America.”

— Paul Ryan

149. “We have got to go and compete for the minds and the hearts and the votes of everybody in this country, no matter who they are. And what I think we’ve had is one party takes a group of people for granted and another party has not paid attention to them.”

— Paul Ryan

150. “While President Obama shirks his responsibility to advance solutions to our fiscal challenges, he can no longer hide from the merciless math of the balance sheet. Conservatives have made certain of that.”

— Paul Ryan