HARWOOD: On taxes, your predecessor as Ways and Means chair, Dave Camp, when he came out with a comprehensive tax reform a few years ago, he adopted as a principle that it was going to be distributionally neutral. It wasn’t going to advantage any group over the current system. Is that still a principle that you think is appropriate for the Republican tax agenda?

RYAN: So I do not like the idea of buying into these distributional tables. What you’re talking about is what we call static distribution. It’s a ridiculous notion. What it presumes is life in the economy is some fixed pie, and it’s not going to change. And it’s really up to government to redistribute the slices more equitably. That is not how the world works. That’s now how life works.

HARWOOD: And you’re not worried that those blue-collar Republican voters, who are voting in the primaries right now, are going to say, “Hey, wait a minute. You really taking care of people at the top more than you’re taking care of me.”

RYAN: I think most people don’t think, “John’s success comes at my expense.” Or, “My success comes at your expense.” People don’t think like that. People want to know the deck is fair. Bernie Sanders talks about that stuff. That’s not who we are.