Newt Gingrich in Real Change, by Rep. Newt Gingrich (R, GA)

On Corporations: 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act drives IPOs out of the US

The 2002 Sarbanes-Oxley Act, which added massive new reams of accounting red tape for businesses, has driven IPOs out of the US. Furthermore, the legislation is leading public companies to delist from the stock market in order to avoid red tape (and potential criminal penalties). The Sarbanes-Oxley Act effectively drives businesses to be LESS accountable than they were before and has done vastly more damage to the American economy than the corporate accounting scandals it was supposed to reform. It has had a substantial effect on New York as a financial center and has been a big asset for London. It is a wound inflicted by Congress on the American economy.

On Crime: Supports Prison Fellowship InnerChange Freedom Initiative

You don't have to believe in the power of faith to appreciate the benefits IFI provides to the community: fewer victims, safer neighborhoods, reduced court cases, and fewer prisoners.

Many government officials find a faith-based solution unacceptable. They would rather have people commit more crimes and do more prison time than risk changing their lives with a faith-based approach.

On Education: More learning options: community college-run charter schools

Consider also that the Detroit public school system will spend $7,469 per pupil. The Detroit school system doesn't fail for lack of money. They fail because success if not the priority. If you measure the Detroit system by whether the checks arrive for the bureaucrats each month no matter how badly they are doing, then it has 100% success rate.

The young people of Detroit need more learning options, but government stands in their way. Michigan community colleges, for example, are prevented by state law from chartering schools in city districts. A charter school is simply a public school freed from the bureaucracy's rules and willing to hold itself accountable for producing results. And guess what? They work.

On Education: Offer coupons to send kids to schools that work best

But real change requires real change, not new rhetoric while doing more o the same old thing. Propping up the failed past at the expense of future generations leads to prison and poverty for too many of our children.

In city after city across the country, education bureaucrats and unions make it quite clear that they put the union's interests ahead of the children.

On Energy & Oil: Billion-dollar prize for first mass-produced hydrogen car

There should be a substantial tax break for investing in both ethanol and hydrogen supply stations and hydrogen pipelines so the fuel can be delivered when the automobiles are available at a reasonable cost.

On Energy & Oil: 2008 book: Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less

I wrote a book in fall 2008 called "Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less," describing America's vast energy potential and explain how misguided government policies have prevented us from becoming an energy powerhouse.

On Environment: Katrina's collapse of New Orleans was avoidable

• The collapse of New Orleans was unavoidable.
• The collapse of the relief effort among the very poor was unavoidable.
• The lack of national, state, and local leadership and decisive intervention was avoidable.
• The Army Corps of Engineers failed to do its job and ensure that the levees would work when put to the test by a large-scale hurricane, which was a clearly foreseeable situation.
• The politicians in Washington clearly had other things they wanted to spend money on and preferred to run the risk of a city-crippling catastrophe.

On Environment: Boston's Big Dig was a classic pork barrel project

The Big Dig highway project was the most expansive such project in U.S history. The initial price tag was $2.6 billion (in 1982 dollars), and it was supposed to be completed in seven years. From the start, it was plagued by leaks, falling debris, delays, and other problems linked to faulty construction. On July 10, 2006, a woman was killed by falling concrete in a connector tunnel. In 2008, the "Boston Globe" reported that the Big Dig's total cost would hit an astounding $22 billion and will not be paid off until 2038.

That sounds disastrous--and it is. The Big Dig was a classic pork barrel project, with weak oversight, no incentives for achievement, and no innovation in management. But that's the way government programs usually work. That's why we need real change for a smarter, more efficient government.

On Environment: Reject apocalyptic warnings; they only lead to higher taxes

In every instance the danger was apocalyptic, science and technology were major threats, and the free market was hazardous. Big government, big regulation, centralized bureaucratic controls, and higher taxes were the solution.

Former Vice President Al Gore wrote in his 1992 book "Earth in the Balance", "We have tilted so far toward individual rights and so far away from any sense of obligation that it is now difficult to muster an adequate defense of any rights vested in the community at large or the nation--much less rights properly vested in all humankind or in posterity."

The danger here is that private property rights & individual liberty could be taken away in favor of some collectivist & non-democratic elite's interpretation of what is needed. The level of power that this would give to international bureaucrats is almost beyond belief.

On Government Reform: End judicial supremacy; preserve our Godly heritage

The Declaration of Independence assumes that God is sovereign over the universe. And it assumes that man must obey an order of justice God Himself has instituted.

The challenge comes from a bigoted anti-religious judiciary asserting a doctrine of judicial supremacy. In hostility to American history, these anti-religious bigots insist that religious belief is inherently divisive, and that public debate can proceed on secular terms only when religious belief is excluded.

On Health Care: Focus on health as a moral issue

On Health Care: 21st-century personalized intelligent health system

1. Centered on the Individual
   • The Right to Know: current system is absurdly secretive
   • Personal Responsibility: individuals expected to inform themselves
   • Personalized Health and Health Care: via genetic tests
2. Information Technology and Quality
   • Paper Kills: 98,000 Americans die as a result of medical errors
   • E-Prescribing: avoid 150 pharmacist calls
3. Health, Not Health Care
   • Drivers and Strategies: Science; Information technology; Individual empowerment

On Homeland Security: Gingrich-plus-up: $1B increase in 1990s Pentagon funding

On Immigration: Deport 55,000 illegal aliens with multiple arrest records

On Immigration: Elite immigration solution incompatible with American values

Unfortunately, the Washington elites have agreed on a definition of success that is infuriating to the average American. The elites on the left oppose border control, oppose English as the official government language, oppose expanding legal immigration, and want to find a way to allow everyone here illegally to stay, all while prohibiting illegal immigration in the future. The country is convinced that this so-called solution is incompatible with American values and will weaken America's future.

In trying to force their left-wing solution on a country that rejects it, the elite have resorted to describing their critics as racist, xenophobic, unrealistic, and much worse. Those attacks are merely a sign of the elites' desperation.

On Immigration: Lax border security lets in terrorists

Most Americans understand the irrationality of intense security at airports and lax security at the borders. This requires the terrorist to be dumb enough that he insists on flying into the United States when he could simply ride a truck or walk into the country unimpeded. The refusal to control the border has been one of the most infuriating aspects of modern government, and one of the most inexcusable.

The American people want reform that establishes English as the official language of government, reform that controls the borders, reform that doesn't reward illegality, reform that enforces penalties on employers.

On Jobs: Unions want to take away right to secret-ballot elections

On Principles & Values: Red-blue split in America is 85% Americans and 15% fringe

The media tell us America is a nation divided between conservative red states and liberal blue states. They tell us that red and blue are equally divided--which is why elections are so close, why Congress seems gridlocked, and why nothing ever seems to get done in Washington.

But that's simply not true. The reality is the American people are united on almost every important issue facing our country. The real division is between red-white-blue America (about 85% of the country) and a fringe on the left (about 15% of the country). Not only have the media perpetuated the myth that the country is equally divided, but the elites on the left fringe have also insisted that their positions hold moral superiority. Neither is true.

On Principles & Values: After 2000, Republicans failed to govern successfully

1. In Great Britain, Thatcher failed to change the culture of the Conservative Party, which reverted to an unthinking, non-reform style as soon as she left office.
2. Reagan failed to change the culture of presidential Republicans; the first Bush administration got rid of virtually all the Reaganites as soon as it could, and within two years was cutting deals with the Democrats to raise taxes.
3. Those of u who believed in a reform-oriented, majority Republican Party could not change the minority mindset of the House Republicans. The minority thinkers had no idea what it had taken to win the majority in 1994, and they had no interest in learning.

On Principles & Values: Red-vs.-Blue fails: propose Red-White-and-Blue solutions

The American People Want Red-White-and-Blue Solutions: Red-versus-blue can work for one or two election cycles, but eventually it set up three destructive dynamics.

1. It continually narrows the playing field. Candidates give up on persuading anyone on the other side to join their cause and focus instead on narrow, partisan appeals
2. The requirement to maximize turnout with partisan appeals leads to a shrillness that eventually drives away independents & moderates
3. The most effective turnout mechanism is to scare or anger your side into voting, which in the long run leads to a numbness that convinces all but the hardest partisans that your messages are phony and misleading.

On Principles & Values: 1979: wrote Art of Transformation; 1990s: implemented it

1. What do you value?
2. What vision of success do you have for achieving what you value?
3. What metrics would tell you whether you are making progress toward your visions?
4. What strategies would enable you to achieve your vision?
5. What projects would enable you to implement your strategies successfully? (A project is a definable, delegatable achievement and the key to entrepreneurial management.)
6. What tasks have to be done well to complete each project?

On Social Security: Move retirement plans to personal savings plans

On Social Security: Invest 50% of payroll taxes in personal accounts

Suppose that workers were free to save and invest, in their own personal accounts, up to roughly 50% of what they currently pay in payroll taxes. Employers would contribute the same amount to their workers' personal accounts out of the payroll taxes they currently pay on behalf of their employees. This plan was proposed in a bill by Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) and Sen. John Sununu (R-NH). Lower income workers would be allowed to invest a slightly higher percentage of what they currently pay in payroll taxes, and higher-income workers a little less.

If a personal account pays more than the Social Security benefits it replaces, [the taxpayer] gets to keep the gain. If the account is insufficient to pay for all the benefits it replaces, the government pays the difference.

On Tax Reform: Flat tax proposal criticized for losing popular tax breaks

All workers and corporations would have the freedom to choose each year to file their income taxes either under the new free choice flat tax option or under the current US income tax code.

Rhode Island adopted an optional flat tax, and lawmakers there expect that it will make the state more competitive with neighboring states in attracting new business and entrepreneurs who create jobs.

On Tax Reform: Tax hikes retard growth and depress revenues

What we learned in 1995, and what we must recognize today, is that there are four key principles to achieving a balanced budget:
1. Cut taxes to increase economic growth and therefore increase revenues. It may seem counterintuitive--and it certainly is to elite editorial writers--but cutting taxes to increase economic growth is the best long-term strategy for balancing the budget. Tax hikes retard economic growth and depress revenues.
2. Set priorities and increase spending in key areas while reducing it in non-essential areas.
3. Eliminate pork barrel spending. One of the reasons I strongly favor a balanced budget commitment is because it disciplines politicians.
4. Shift from expansive, wasteful systems to smarter spending. Modern corporations that achieve success do so by being smarter and more productive, not just by being cheaper.

On Technology: NASA bureaucrats hijacked the great space adventure

I propose a dramatically bolder approach. NASA currently has plans to spend twenty years getting to Mars at a cost estimated of up to $450 billion. A very significant amount of that time and money will be spent studying, planning, and thinking. We would get much further much faster if we simply established two prizes: a tax-free $5 billion prize for the first permanent lunar base and a tax-free $20 billion prize for the first team to get to Mars and back.

On Technology: Establish three high-speed rail corridors; NY-MA; FL; & CA

There are three problems with trying to build high-speed systems in the US and, not surprisingly, all three relate to government.

1. Union work rules make it impossible, at least if Amtrak has anything to do with it.
2. Pork barrel politicians waste money subsidizing absurdly uneconomic routes
3. Regulations and litigation involved in large-scale construction have become time- consuming and expensive.

On War & Peace: Goal was to liberate Iraq from Saddam, not to occupy

It was vital from day one that the US be seen as a liberator and not as an occupier. For some reason the lesson learned in Afghanistan--of liberating and not occupying--did not get across. Like most bureaucracies, this one looked after itself. It created a green zone of protection and comfort to shield the bureaucrats. By creating a green zone, it acknowledged that the entire rest of the country was a red zone, a danger zone. Worst of all, the decision to have an explicitly American administrator of Iraq guaranteed that America's role would change from liberator to occupier.

By Dec. 2003, things were so bad that I went public and declared that we had "gone off a cliff" in the June decisions, and that until they were reversed things were just going to get worse.

On War & Peace: The "Irreconcilable Wing of Islam" threatens our way of life

The Irreconcilable Wing of Islam has emerged as an extremist movement against not only non-Muslims but also against moderate Muslims who wish both to preserve their faith and to be a part of the modern world.

On Welfare & Poverty: Ten Lessons from Successfully Transforming Welfare

1. Successful reform always starts with a big idea
2. Decide whether to repair or replace
3. Great change never starts with government
4. Cheerful persistence is necessary to successfully deliver large-scale reform in a free society
5. Collaboration is critical (including involvement of key governors)
6. Real change always requires winning the argument
7. Words matter; communication good policy
8. Real change must be consistent with broad American values
9. Opponents of reform must be forced to carry the burden of their positions
10. Real change must be citizen-centered.