Lessons Learned the Hard Way: on Government Reform
Established systems are inherently hostile to change
A leader engaged in trying to bring about a transformation will find himself living in an environment hostile to his intentions. The system he is trying to reform, after all, is the established one.
The old order, as old orders always do, will be fighting for its life and thus will be engaged in undertaking everything possible to stop any new system from emerging.
If the leaders of an intended transformation relies on the information and judgments made available to him through the various means established in the old order, he will invariably find himself making the wrong decisions and doing the wrong things.
Thus he must keep his vision rightly focused, his will fully engaged, and his self-discipline intact.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 14
Jul 2, 1998
Press plays “gotcha”; limit press briefings
It will surprise no one that our press briefings turned out to be an ongoing headache. They got to be little more than a game of “pin the tail on the Speaker.” The members of the press who turn up at these briefings,
are only interested in what they call “gotcha,” that is, they were waiting for us to make a slip, any slip, so they could go back to the newsroom and tell everyone who they had tripped us up that day.
As long as we kept putting ourselves out in the open, we were inviting them to try and score off us.
With the help of our friends and allies, we were finally brought to our senses and closed down the press briefings.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 37-38
Jul 2, 1998
1995 government shutdown from GOP underestimating Clinton
To underestimate a politician like Clinton is a serious error, and it is an error we committed in 1995-96. In November, we sent him a stopgap spending bill that froze Medicare premiums, and he vetoed it on the grounds that it would hurt seniors.
We sent a new bill without the Medicare provision but with a statutory commitment to a balanced budget. He signed it, ending the first of two government shutdowns. The commitment was later ignored. We passed a bill funding the Department of the
Interior, and he vetoed it, closing the national parks. Likewise, he vetoed bills covering the Departments of Health and Human Services, State, Justice, Labor, and Education, among others. We not only lost the battle over the legislation itself, but the
far more important one for the public’s understanding and approval of what we were trying to do. The second shutdown, with stretched for three weeks over the 1995 Christmas holidays, seared into the public’s mind a deeply negative impression.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 56
Jul 2, 1998
1994 GOP victory destroyed bipartisanship
In 1994, with a relatively modest 230-205 majority, we lulled ourselves into the expectation that the liberals would decide they had to accept the judgment of the people and adjust their programs accordingly. The liberals viewed us as interlopers who
had somehow usurped what belonged to them by right. In their view, they had to attack us and drive us from power by any and all possible means, and in the shortest time possible.
This was a perfectly understandable response for liberals who had
controlled the House for 60 of the last 64 years. Nor did we on our part do anything to mitigate their determination. On the contrary, we spoke and behaved as if there were little ground on which to build any kind of bipartisan cooperation. Sam Rayburn
had famously said that to get along you had to go along. But we were in no mood either to get along or to go along. This principle worked only when people agreed on the basic things, but could not apply in the case of real ideological difference.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 65-66
Jul 2, 1998
Elected on anti-corruption platform in 1978
I won my congressional seat for the first time in 1978 and my campaigns focused on discussion of the ethics of elected officials. It was something about which I felt, and still feel, deeply. I accept that there are some people, highly decent themselves,
who think that other problems should take precedence over the problem of corrupt politicians. Such people may have grown tired and resigned themselves or may perhaps be in the grip of some all-embracing ideological passion that for them takes precedence
over any concern about corruption of this kind. I can understand both arguments, but both are wrong. The trustworthiness of our political leaders goes through the heart of our political culture to the very question of how much
allegiance to their country can be demanded of ordinary citizens. Cynicism is corrosive of everything that our Constitution was meant to stand for and hence of our very democratic system.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p. 86
Jul 2, 1998
Government should take management lesson from private sector
Marianne went out to buy something that cost $15 and had to wait an hour and a half in line to do it. What Marianne was doing was renewing her GA driver’s license. Where in the private sector could anyone selling something get their customers to wait in
line for an hour and a half? When she described her wait to me, it occurred to me that we have been conditioned to keep two separate clocks in our heads, a clock with a second hand for private transactions and a clock that moves only in
15-minute increments for government offices.
One of the first things we have to learn is how to apply to the public sector the principles that have made the American economy the wonder of the world. The reason is the bottom line.
The public sector too, ought to be considering its bottom line, measured not in individual or corporate earnings but in terms of meeting goals to ensure a safe, prosperous, healthy, and free future for our children and grandchildren.
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.196-197
Jul 2, 1998
Rethink every aspect of bureaucracy
We need to rethink every aspect of our bureaucratized government to make sure it is really necessary. Four tests will help us accomplish this.-
Have we included the enormous potential of new scientific discoveries and their accompanying technologies?
- We must ask of every government effort: is it really necessary for government to be engaged in this?
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If government ought to be responsible for a particular program or function, is it necessary that the program be centralized in Washington, or would society be better off if it were devolved to state and local government?
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If it is decided that only the federal government can be in charge of something, are we implementing the program with the best applicable new science and technology?
Source: Lessons Learned the Hard Way, by Newt Gingrich, p.202-203
Jul 2, 1998
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