Donald Trump Finds a Foil in Paul Ryan

The ideas the group de­bated in­cluded con­vert­ing more fed­er­al anti-poverty programs in­to state block grants; ex­pand­ing the Earned In­come Tax Cred­it that sup­ports the work­ing poor, pro­mot­ing charter schools, crim­in­al-justice re­form, and re­think­ing treat­ment for drug ad­dicts. Phrases such as “out­come-based meas­ures” and “middle-skilled jobs” drew know­ing nods.

.. Demo­crats find much to cri­ti­cize in these spe­cif­ic pro­pos­als. Ad­voc­ates for the poor ar­gue that Ry­an’s plans to block-grant anti-poverty pro­grams such as food stamps would pro­duce large spend­ing cuts.

.. Polit­ic­ally, the for­um re­flec­ted the be­lief of many con­ser­vat­ive policy intellectuals that the party can win back the White House only by prov­ing it has con­crete re­sponses that ex­tend bey­ond tax cuts to the eco­nom­ic chal­lenges most Amer­ic­ans face.

.. Their more fun­da­ment­al difference is that Trump is lead­ing the GOP to­ward a European-style ra­cial nationalism that re­lies primar­ily on mar­shal­ing griev­ances among ali­en­ated whites