--- title: Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC description: "People don't just want a life of comfort; they want a life of dignity." canonical: https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/ author: Eliana Dockterman article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-03-06T23:06:37.000Z article:modified_time: 2024-01-24T16:17:44.000Z article:section: Politics og:title: Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC og:description: "People don't just want a life of comfort; they want a life of dignity." og:url: https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40eeadd5ae71e12c/69868460e8524b498d601b05/paul-ryan-cpac-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1800 og:image:height: 1013 og:image:alt: Congressman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, waves to the crowd after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 6, 2014. og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC twitter:description: "People don't just want a life of comfort; they want a life of dignity." twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40eeadd5ae71e12c/69868460e8524b498d601b05/paul-ryan-cpac-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC > Sponsored content. 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Brief is TIME's Washington newsletter, written by senior correspondent Philip Elliott. It explains the politics, personalities and power dynamics behind the headlines, three times a week. It reaches 85,000 subscribers with a 37.0% open rate as of August 2026. #### Where can I get analysis of Washington politics by email? D.C. Brief is TIME's free Washington politics newsletter, available at time.com/newsletters. It is written by a TIME senior correspondent who covers the capital full time. #### Who writes TIME's D.C. Brief? Philip Elliott, a senior correspondent at TIME, writes D.C. Brief. #### Is D.C. Brief free? Yes. D.C. Brief is free at time.com/newsletters. ## Video: House Speaker Paul Ryan: 'Welcome to the Dawn of a New Unified Republican Government’ [Watch (HLS stream): House Speaker Paul Ryan: 'Welcome to the Dawn of a New Unified Republican Government’](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jeDIDaNO.m3u8) (0:48)  _Published 2016-11-15. "Better days lie ahead for our country"_  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Updated: Jan 24, 2024 4:17 PM UTCPublished: Mar 6, 2014 11:06 PM UTC  Congressman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, waves to the crowd after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 6, 2014. Congressman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, waves to the crowd after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 6, 2014. Lexey Swall—GRAIN for TIME  by [Eliana Dockterman](https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/)  ## Eliana Dockterman Correspondent Updated: Jan 24, 2024 4:17 PM UTCPublished: Mar 6, 2014 11:06 PM UTC Paul Ryan argued that liberal government programs give people comfort but not dignity. In a [speech](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fiwnUaGZOdk) he made at Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC), the country’s largest gathering of conservative leaders and activists, Thursday, he shared a story he heard from Eloise Anderson, who serves in the Cabinet for Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker, as a way of criticizing the Affordable Care Act. --- > “” --- **Update:** The story has been updated to add a fuller quote and context to Ryan’s remarks at the 2014 Conservative Political Action Conference. A spokeswoman for Anderson [later told the Washington _Post_](https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/fact-checker/wp/2014/03/06/a-story-too-good-to-check-paul-ryan-and-the-story-of-the-brown-paper-bag/?utm%5Fterm=.322c454463e6) that she had misspoken while testifying before Congress, and that the quote about a brown-paper bag came from a TV interview she saw. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/"},"headline":"Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC","datePublished":"2014-03-06T23:06:37.000Z","dateModified":"2024-01-24T16:17:44.000Z","description":"'People don't just want a life of comfort; they want a life of dignity'","url":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/","keywords":["Congress","People Premium","Children","Hunger","Paul Ryan"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40eeadd5ae71e12c/69868460e8524b498d601b05/paul-ryan-cpac-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Eliana Dockterman","jobTitle":"Correspondent","url":"https://time.com/author/eliana-dockterman/"}],"articleSection":"Politics","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt40eeadd5ae71e12c/69868460e8524b498d601b05/paul-ryan-cpac-2016.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Congressman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, waves to the crowd after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 6, 2014.","caption":"Congressman Paul Ryan, of Wisconsin, waves to the crowd after speaking during the Conservative Political Action Conference at the Gaylord National Resort & Convention Center in National Harbor, Md., March 6, 2014.","creditText":"Lexey Swall—GRAIN for TIME","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/politics/","name":"Politics"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/congress/","name":"Congress"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/","name":"Paul Ryan Criticizes Liberal Government Programs at CPAC"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"House Speaker Paul Ryan: 'Welcome to the Dawn of a New Unified Republican Government’","description":"\"Better days lie ahead for our country\"","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/jeDIDaNO/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2016-11-15T17:28:51.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/jeDIDaNO.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/","duration":"PT48S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/14887/paul-ryan-cpac-2014/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```