Newt Discusses the Red vs Blue Myth on Hannity’s America

Fox News Network
January 20, 2008

SEAN HANNITY, HOST: And good evening everyone. Welcome to an all new edition of HANNITY'S AMERICA. And we get right to our top story this evening. The presidential nominating contest is heading into the home stretch. The one common theme among candidates of both parties is the dialogue about change in Washington.

Our own Newt Gingrich, who is the author of the brand new book, "Real Change: From The World That Fails To The World That Works," tells us tonight what he thinks of the candidates and what he is hoping that they will do to offer real change for you and for America.

We are joined on "HANNITY'S AMERICA" by Former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich. All right. Here's the title, "Real Change From The World That Fails To The World That Works." You wrote this book. This is now change versus experience the entire election. You wrote this book when?

GINGRICH: I wrote the book back in basically August, September, October.

HANNITY: Well, you are occasionally in your life. You have been able to show yourself a little ahead of the curve. So I congratulate you once again.

GINGRICH: Well, I think the key here and the reason I wrote "Real Change" is to say we need from both Democrats and Republicans to understand that we are now in the 21st century. We're now competing with China and India. We are now faced with people of Al-Qaeda who want to kill us. We now have bureaucracies that are totally obsolete. Now let's have the guts to talk about real change and not just political baloney.

HANNITY: I have traveled with you enough and heard enough of your speeches to know you use an example Fed-Ex tracking packages. You actually put one up on YouTube. It was one of the most watched YouTube speeches that anyone ever gave. But you said we live in a world that works. Why tolerate a government that doesn't work?

GINGRICH: I think it's one of the most interesting challenges of our time. We have a Detroit school system which is terrific at paying the bureaucrats and terrible for the children. We have a Michigan government which is terrific for the public employee union and is destroying the economy of Michigan. We have a Department of Homeland Security. It's very, very expensive. Can't control the border, can't find illegal immigrants, can't provide security. And yet, somehow the politicians find new excuses to avoid thinking.

HANNITY: You talk about the myth of red versus blue and you also have a list that - I know you have been doing this with American Solutions - of what Americans really believe. There is a lot we all agree on, but you don't hear about it.

GINGRICH: I wish you had been with me the other day on a relatively liberal news person's show when I said, for example, we can all agree, 87 percent of us that English ought to be the official language of government. The speed with which that liberal wanted to leave that topic was unimaginable.

If you aren't part of a left wing elite, you believe one nation under God ought to be in the pledge of allegiance. You believe we ought to abolish the "death tax." You believe we ought to give a tax break to American companies that keep their headquarters in the U.S. You believe that we ought to invest heavily on Math and Science education. They're a whole range of things you believe in.

And then you get to the elite. And again and again, they don't get it. They don't understand that the border matters to most Americans because they think it's a security issue. They don't understand that Americans actually want to enforce the law. And so that's why you get this mismatch between the Washington elite or the Albany and, frankly, Sacramento and Trenton elite and the whole rest of the country.

HANNITY: Yes. You talk about - This is important because both parties are failing. You are equally critical of Republicans and Democrats. You have one chapter on reform, right, why Republicans fail to govern successfully. And then you go after the Democrats as well. Why are both parties failing the country?

GINGRICH: Well, the way I describe it is Democrats can't and for some bizarre reason Republicans won't. The Democrats have a very hard time reforming these great bureaucracies because it's their public employees. It's their left-wing tenured faculty member. It's their left wing judge. It's their left-wing trial lawyer. It's their left wing Hollywood.

So, if you go to them and say, why don't you - and by the way, in the platform of the American people which is in real change, we actually list things which have the majority of Democrats as well as Republicans and Independents favor. And yet the Democrat politicians are this far away from the Democrat individual voter.

The Republicans have a different problem. Well, I hate to say it this way, Sean, but Republican politicians don't like to think. I think as a group, they get together and chant slogans. And they find it very hard to pay attention to the serious fundamental lessons that are necessary.

HANNITY: You look at the slate of Republican candidates. And you know, I hear that they want to win the war in Iraq, stay on offense on the war on terror. Every one of them is talking about securing our borders. They all want to lower taxes. They don't want to nationalize healthcare. They want free market solutions. Is that thinking enough or not enough?

GINGRICH: Well, let me give you an example. We just had the Michigan primary. Here was an opportunity to go into a state which has had an artificial recession. Other than states hit by Katrina, no state in America has had as much job loss as Michigan. All of it artificial, caused by terrible government in Detroit and terrible government in Lansing.

And by the way, the reaction of the liberal Democrats to Michigan collapsing was, "Let's raise taxes. Now here's how bad it is. Forty percent of the students at Michigan State and the University of Michigan plan to leave the state as soon as they graduate. Yet no Republican went in and said, "Here is a fundamental critique of what we need to do for Michigan to be healthy."

HANNITY: Well, the last time I was in Detroit, I mean it is a city that has been devastated. I mean I saw more homes boarded up in one of the greatest cities in America. I spent a lot of times with the guys at General Motors, describing the impact the government policies have had on their industry and how there's a lot of competition in this country but they are not allowed to have access to the markets of companies that are excelling here.

GINGRICH: Well, let me give you an example. We cite this in "Real Change" and spent a good amount of time in Detroit.

HANNITY: And Katrina - you had both of them.

GINGRICH: In 1950, Detroit had a 1,800,000 people and had the highest per capita income in America. Today, after a half century of terrible government, Detroit has shrunk to 950,000 people and is number 62 in per capita income. Now, this is a tragedy worth studying because it is vivid proof that the big bureaucracy, big regulation, big litigation, high tax model of the left kills jobs, kills hope and cripples the future.

HANNITY: You talk about we did it before we can do it again, and that's always been the history of America. Relay that to the upcoming election, which I know our audience is very focused on. In other words, who would be better at doing it again?

GINGRICH: If somebody would go out to the American people, lay it on the line, accept the ridicule of the "New York Times," accept the ridicule of the elite media, accept the assault of the public employee unions and talk about the scale of change we really need, I think they'd win a stunning upset.

I was just, this last week, in Indianapolis, talking with a leading local official, a retired Marine lieutenant colonel decided last summer to take on the incumbent mayor who had a 20 plus point advantage in the polls. The issue was taxes. And the Marine lieutenant colonel said, "You know taxes are too high. The government is too arrogant. The bureaucracy is too wasteful. We need change."

At the end of that campaign, the people of Indianapolis defeated the invulnerable incumbent mayor and elected an unknown Marine lieutenant colonel to be the mayor of Indianapolis. I think if somebody had the same courage to go to the country, tell the truth how bad the bureaucracy is, tell the truth about fraud in Medicaid -

HANNITY: All right. So do you regret not getting in?

GINGRICH: No, because I think - as I tried to show in "Real Change," I think we are at the beginning stage. I think it's like Reagan in 1966 not Reagan in 1980. And I think we're just beginning to layout both with "American Solutions" as a model and with "Real Change" as a book. Here's where we could go, and frankly, I don't think I could have written this and raised the money for a campaign at the same time.

HANNITY: The last, best, greatest hope for man on this earth. Mr. Speaker, good to see you on HANNITY'S AMERICA.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

HANNITY: I appreciate it. Thank you.

Tag |

Email |

Comments

By David @ Wednesday, January 23, 2008 2:02 PM

Where do you think those U Mich grads are going to go to work, at Ford, Chrysler, or GM? How can you continue to ignore the effect of your so called "free trade" in destroying the economy of Michigan? You blame the teacher's union, but ignore the fact that the peak of Michigan's prosperity came at the peak of the power of their unions. Unions have been devastated by the export of jobs out of this country due to our membership in unconstitutional organizations like the WTO and NAFTA.

Look at engineering salaries. They have been flat to declining for decades. Is that the promise of "free trade". Wasn't "free trade" going to ensure we kept those high skilled, high quality jobs here at home and exported low skilled assembly jobs overseas. And what really happened? "Free trade" is a lie. We exported our high skilled jobs. We exported all the jobs U Mich grads are fit for. Then you blame the unions for that? That's insane. And your answer to the flat growth of high skilled, high tech jobs is what? To throw open the borders and let low paid foreign engineers and scientists stream into this country! Newt, you should be ashamed of yourself.

Click Here to post a comment