Paul Ryan Drops Ominous Warning About America’s ‘Fundamentally Unserious’ Populist Politics

Former House speaker and GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan joined CNBC’s Squawk Box on Thursday and slammed the current state of American politics as “fundamentally unserious.”

In a discussion about debt and monetary policy, Ryan pulled no punches in hammering the country’s out-of-control spending and deficit.

“The Overton window in our politics is open for all these crazy ideas but closed for things like debt reduction. So our politics are just fundamentally unserious right now, and they used to be better, frankly,” Ryan argued, adding:

When I was budget chair — in the early 2000s, in the ’10s — I passed four budgets that paid off the debt, that balanced the budget, that reformed Medicare and Medicaid, and all of these things. And no one lost their seats over those votes. We showed… You know, out of Congress, we passed out of the House these budgets that did this. And today, you can’t get that done.

“What changed? What happened?” pressed co-host Becky Quick.

“Our politics changed. We became populist — both parties are populist parties. Grievance politics, I would argue, is mostly what is being pushed. But we became populist parties with populist beliefs. Things like debt reduction and entitlement reform are unpopular. Therefore, we don’t have anything close to the politics we need to get this stuff done,” Ryan added.

In late August, the U.S. saw its national debt balloon from just under $20 trillion at the end of President Barack Obama’s presidency to passing the $40 trillion mark — doubling in roughly a decade.

During President Donald Trump’s first term, he added some $7.8 trillion to the debt, increasing it overall by roughly 40 percent. Biden’s term in office added an additional $4.7 trillion to the debt, while Trump’s second term so far has added another $3.8 trillion, which, compounded by interest, has surpassed the $40 trillion figure.

Watch the clip above via CNBC.

New: The Mediaite One-Sheet "Newsletter of Newsletters"
Your daily summary and analysis of what the many, many media newsletters are saying and reporting. Subscribe now!