Gingrich wants Republicans to get back to reform

http://www.jewishworldreview.com | You've got to hand it to Newt Gingrich. No one in American political life thinks in as big, even cosmic terms as the former House speaker. Impractical, perhaps. But definitely big.

Now he's written a book called "Winning the Future" (Click HERE to purchase. Sales help fund JWR.) that's so sweeping he concedes it's more of a wish list for preferred public policy over the next quarter century than a political platform for the next election. After all, this Congress, though under the same party as the White House, has trouble passing the annual bills to fund the government.

Gingrich plans to push his ideas this spring in the two states that often shape presidential politics, Iowa and New Hampshire. But he acknowledged in a breakfast session with reporters that a White House bid in 2008 is, in his word, "implausible."

Though he refused to rule it out flatly, he suggested that his main purpose in going to the two states is to promote his agenda, rather than his own fortunes. "If you want to move ideas into the center of American politics, where would you go?"

A decade ago, the former Georgia lawmaker soared into the forefront of U.S. politics as the speaker of the first Republican House in 40 years and the architect of a reform agenda called the "Contract with America." In 1998, he abruptly left the speakership after unexpected GOP election losses.

Now, he is again showing a range that goes far beyond that of most American politicians with an agenda of remedies for some of the nation's most intractable issues. The question is: Are they practical in an increasingly gridlocked political system?

They include revamping the nation's health care and retirement systems, re-establishing religion and values in American life, an immigration policy to control the border and instill "patriotic citizenship," expanded scientific research and election reform.

Specific proposals range from technical improvements such as a nationwide system of electronic voting and wider use of information technology in the health care system to weakening "judicial supremacy" by impeaching "unfit" judges for finding unconstitutional the "one nation under G-d" clause in the Pledge of Allegiance.

Between spewing ideas and assailing liberals, he found time to suggest that both President Bush and the Republican Congress have strayed from his reform agenda. While Bush "at a vision level has been very effective in defining a general direction," Gingrich found fault with the president "operationally" for these shortcomings:

Fixing the nation's health care system, which he calls the key to balancing the federal budget, "is a much bigger challenge than, say, Social Security."
Bush should give priority to making his tax cuts permanent, especially phasing out the inheritance tax, rather than seeking "some kind of complex tax reform."
While he favored deficit spending after 9-11 to avoid deflation, he thinks it's time to re-establish the goal of a balanced budget. "Politicians need a barrier that explains the word 'No,'" he said. He said spending cuts should include making NASA's space shuttle a private program.
The administration's overseas priorities need re-orienting, too. "We're getting sucked into Iraq as though it's the only problem," he said, adding that U.S. relations with India and China are ultimately more important.

The former speaker had pointed comments for his successors in the House. He said they are going too far in limiting debate, declaring, "It's very dangerous to run the House too tightly for too long."

And he reiterated his criticism of ethics changes designed to protect Majority Leader Tom DeLay, noting that GOP success stems from its ability to attract reform-minded Ross Perot supporters. "To the degree that we are no longer seen as the reform party, we create space either for a third party or for people to stay at home," he said.

But he made clear his focus is longer term — and his confidence in his prescience is undimmed.

"I'm acting on the theory that, over time, the American people are fairly smart consumers of public policy," he said. Unless its ideas are proven obsolete, "then this book will become more and more significant as sort of a handbook for conservatives or as a handbook for mainstream Americans who want to compete with China."

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in Washington and in the media consider "must reading." Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

Carl P. Leubsdorf is Washington bureau chief of the Dallas Morning News. Comment by clicking here.