Rep. Paul Ryan has a simple recipe for how the U.S. can achieve greater economic freedom.
Ryan, R-Wis., said Tuesday that stronger trade policies and stomping out cronyism can make the country’s economy more free.
Ryan, speaking at the Heritage Foundation to introduce the 21st edition of the Index of Economic Freedom, joked that he’s been reading the index since his mid-twenties, and applauded its influence.
“Countries around the world pay attention to this,” said Ryan, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. “I hope ours does, too.”
He added:
“We started capping the kind that Congress is control of on an annual basis, discretionary spending, and so I think it’s noteworthy that because of a new Republican Congress that took over in 2011, we brought some temper to the out of control spending that was happening here in Washington and as a result, it made us more free. That’s a good step in the right direction with many, many steps to follow.”
He said that the Republican takeover of the House in 2011 was a good step towards promoting economic freedom.
“The fact that our country received an uptick in our rating this year, and one of the reasons why we would see this uptick is because since we took over the House in 2011, we started cutting spending,” Ryan said.
Ryan said that the U.S. could “attack cronyism” through trade.
U.S. economic policy should be a model for other nations on economic freedom, Ryan said, and if we don’t “write the rules for the global economy,” than other countries will. Conservative policy goals can be accomplished with other nations through trade, he added.
According to Ryan, the creed “opportunity for all favoritism for none” should “direct us and guide us going forward in the conduct of our economic policy.”
He believes that big government and big business “unite in a common cause” to bar new competition from entering the markets.
Ryan said that economic policy must guarantee equality of opportunity, not outcome.
Since 1995, the Index of Economic Freedom has been compiled annually by the Heritage Foundation in collaboration with the Wall Street Journal. It tracks “economic freedom, prosperity, and opportunity” in 186 countries. Read more about it here.