Yes, but Reagan could say this because his whole approach was personal and accessible. Welfare had become a great burden by then and everybody knew it. (And while welfare is still a great burden, at least the reaction that he channeled did clean up a lot of the more obvious fraud...well, until now.)
So we need somebody who can call a spade a spade, but do so in a way that appeals to people. Most people don’t want to get welfare, they want to work and have a decent life. And that was the other thing Reagan pitched, at a time when (post-Jimmy) we were in the pits.
Reagan was savagely attacked and told his "Welfare Queen" story was a racist lie. [Even though it does not say anything about the race of the perpetrator at all.]
Welfare had become a great burden by then and everybody knew it.
I guess you did not live through those times; I did. "Everybody" did not know any such thing. There was still a very large constituency for handouts, even if it wasn't the [low estimate] 47% it is today. And the handouts have increased in size through every administration, including Reagan's.
So we need somebody who can call a spade a spade, but do so in a way that appeals to people.
The first thing you do is NOT APOLOGIZE. When you apologize, you are accepting responsibility and asking for forgiveness from blame. Ryan's first and most serious mistake was in not simply saying: "What I've said is true. There is nothing for me to apologize for."
Most people don’t want to get welfare, they want to work and have a decent life.
I do not believe this is true any longer. I think people want a decent life, but I'm not sure a majority wants to work for that. We need to change peoples' minds. You can't do that by "admitting" you were wrong as soon as you meet any resistance.
We are in a death spiral. There is no way out of that except by radically changing direction, and you can't change direction if you continue to allow the adversary to set the rules of debate. Paul Ryan's apology once again leads people to believe that he was a) wrong b) insensitive and c) by association all Republicans are insensitive and wrong. This HAS to stop.