Paul Ryan: I worry that Obama believes in ‘alternate universe’ on economy, foreign policy

Rep. Paul Ryan, Wisconsin Republican, said that while he believes President Obama dialed down the partisanship a bit during his State of the Union address, he’s worried the president is dealing in an “alternate universe” on the state of the economy and foreign policy.

“I’m glad that he sort of held back on the partisanship and the demagoguery,” Mr. Ryan said on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “I guess I’d say in his speech, he dialed it down a bit — we’re used to seeing more divisive, partisan speeches from the president. He didn’t do that as much — I think that’s a good thing.”

Mr. Ryan said Mr. Obama is a “really gifted communicator,” but expressed concern about some of the framework of the speech.

“What worries me a little bit about this speech, though … is just sort of the alternative universe he painted on the economy and foreign policy,” he said. “If you were living on a different planet for the last six years and you just parachuted in, you’d think everything’s going great, that the policies are perfect.”

“But that’s just not the case, and what I worry about is he actually believes this alternative universe on foreign policy, on the economy, and we’ve got a lot of work to do to fix these things, and I worry that he thinks things are going fine, [that] we have to stay with what we’re doing, and I just disagree with that,” he continued.

Mr. Ryan, the GOP’s 2012 vice presidential nominee, took a pass on running for president in 2016 to focus on his post as chairman of the powerful House Ways and Means Committee and has said he wants to tackle reforming the country’s tax code and fighting poverty.