Perhaps hoping to move the political conversation away from Donald Trump’s feud with a federal judge and back onto issues of substance, House Speaker Paul Ryan announced this week a new vision for the future of the Republican agenda. Ryan, who has been all over the map when it comes to his support of Trump’s proposals, laid out a domestic map put together by a Republican task force in the House.

The task force report included such recommendations as:

  • Clearing a path for businesses to offer joint 401k plans to employees
  • Consolidating and cutting federal housing and food programs to remove redundancy and waste
  • Implementing work requirements for those receiving welfare and food stamps
  • Pulling funding from youth programs that don’t have a record of tangible success
  • Removing federal regulations that cost universities billions and contribute to the skyrocketing cost of education

According to the task force report, the important thing is to make sure taxpayer dollars are spent wisely.

“Common sense says the federal government should fund only programs that have a track record of success,” said the report. “Yet the federal government frequently pays for well-intentioned programs and services that have no evidence of effectiveness – and in many cases, even when the program is proven not to work at all.”

Unfortunately, if we elect another liberal to the White House, Ryan’s agenda will have little chance of success. With Hillary Clinton, we will get more useless expenditure, more regulations, and less fiscal responsibility. Our debt will continue to grow, our nation’s small businesses will find it harder and harder to compete, and millions of Americans will find themselves trapped in a cycle of poverty and dependency.

These are the issues upon which the country should be focused. Sadly, on a day where we could have shifted the 2016 conversation to more stable ground, Ryan managed to overshadow his own proposals. At the very event where he unveiled his plan to defeat poverty, Ryan gave the media a much tastier headline.

“Claiming a person can’t do their job because of their race is sort of like the textbook definition of a racist comment,” Ryan said, addressing Trump’s ongoing critique of Judge Gonzalo Curiel. “I disavow those comments. It’s absolutely unacceptable.”

And yet, what does any of that have to do with the direction of the country? What does it have to do with the lives of the average American? These Republicans need to stop getting sucked into the drama or we’ll never get back to the real issues.