Paul Ryan's 'Better GOP' Rollout Draws Battle Lines in Fight for Soul of Party

MILWAUKEE - This election season, the heart and soul of the Republican Party is up for grabs, and Paul Ryan believes it is up to Donald Trump to embrace his policy rollout that is made of issues central to the GOP's core.

Ryan intimated as much Tuesday, as he unveiled recommendations drawn up by a task force of House Republicans to combat poverty, according to a USA Today report.

"This is how you create opportunity, this is how you help people move onward and upward," Ryan said.

Ryan's rollout is called his "Better GOP" plan. We don't know exactly what that means yet, but Thursday, Ryan said he will make public the following recommendations on: national security, taxes, regulations and health care.

Here are Speaker Ryan's poverty-fighting recommendations as reported by USA Today today:

• Instituting increased work requirements for welfare recipients and for recipients of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, who are able to work but aren't;

• Consolidating or streamlining 18 federal food-assistance programs and myriad housing programs, such as the Rural Housing Service rental assistance program and HUD’s Housing Choice voucher program. The Government Accountability Office has identified making the myriad programs efficient as a challenge.

• Streamlining federal funding for at-risk youths and for 45 separate early childhood programs and giving states and local governments more flexibility to address their residents’ needs;

• Rolling back federal requirements and regulations for technical education programs and for colleges and universities, which one study commissioned by Vanderbilt University last year estimated cost schools $27 billion annually. The plan also recommends consolidating the nine federal-aid programs for higher education into three.

• Making it easier for businesses to team up and offer joint 401k retirement savings plans.