Hannity Transcript: Newt Discusses the Economy from the Reagan Ranch

FOXNews.com
March 2, 2009
By Sean Hannity

And joining me now live from the Reagan Ranch in Santa Barbara, California is former speaker of the House and also the host of the brand- new documentary "Ronald Reagan Rendezvous with Destiny." Newt Gingrich is with us.

How apropos, I guess, to have this DVD come out, Mr. Speaker, because Reagan took over a far worse economy. Reagan did the exact opposite of what Barack Obama's doing with a principal belief system that was the antithesis of Obama that government is the problem.

Where do you see this going with Obama-nomics?

NEWT GINGRICH, "RENDEZVOUS WITH DESTINY": Well, let me say, first of all, you put your finger on it, and I want to commend Ainsley for a great briefing just now, and she vividly showed you how this deficit is exploding from the numbers it was under Bush to the first year of the Obama disaster, and it's going to get much worse very fast, I think.

But you know, Callista and I made the movie, "Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny," really believing that looking at Reagan and Jimmy Carter, looking at the changes of 1980, `81, `82, would really apply to today. And that's why we worked with (INAUDIBLE), of Citizens United, to make it, that's why we're here tonight at the Reagan Ranch Foundation.

And here's the number one take away for the American people. Ronald Reagan understood that if you wanted to encourage jobs and you wanted to encourage economic growth, you had to encourage the people who invented jobs and the people who created economic growth.

And he understood that liberalism's effort at big taxes, big regulations, big litigation were just wrong. That's why the scene you used, Sean, was so exactly right. Now what are we seeing today? First of all, in a way that should really bother people, this administration is turning out to be very systemically dishonest. And I think your point is exactly right.

We're told on the one hand we're at the edge of catastrophe which by the way I think we could be with these policies. We're told on the other hand the economy is going to grow next year. They can't both be right, and I'm afraid that what's right is the bad warnings because the Obama plan is so destructive for those who want to create jobs.

HANNITY: Let me bring this. Welcome to the age of Obama. Now if we go back to May 6th when it was apparent that he was going to probably be the Democratic nominee the stock market was over 13000, and if we go to October just before the election, the polls show that he had a pretty commanding lead over John McCain, the stock market was, what, around the 11000 plus mark.

Why, with all of this spending, $8.4 trillion estimated by the Heritage Foundation -- why is there so little confidence by Wall Street that this is the plan in spite of all the fear that's been given to the American people that's going to solve the economic problem where people are seeing half of their retirement funds go away in a sweep of a -- snap of a finger?

GINGRICH: You know, I've been in New York, Atlanta, Phoenix, and now I'm in Santa Barbara. Everywhere I go people who are successful say to me they do not think this administration has any idea the level of damage it's doing to the market, to jobs, to investment, and -- now let me give you an example.

Would you want to live in a country where Chris Dodd is the guy, the senator from Connecticut, who decides what the salary cap is?

HANNITY: Wait a minute.

GINGRICH: Do you want to live in a country where.

HANNITY: Does Chris Dodd give us the friends of Angelo deal when he get our mortgage? I'm kidding.

GINGRICH: Well, he might but I -- I don't think he was going to give it to you, Sean. I think that was for his friends, and you're not on that list.

HANNITY: That was for him.

GINGRICH: You know, but -- go down the list. Would John Kerry, the senator from Massachusetts, gets to say he doesn't like golf outings so businesses shouldn't do them, where President Obama, I think without any realization of what he was doing, drove a Goldman Sachs conference out of Las Vegas.

Now, if you're the restaurant workers, if you are the hotel workers, if you're the people who are going to make a living with that conference, you've got to wonder what is this administration thinking as they go around doing this?

If you were a would-be investor and you knew that you had an administration that believed if you made over $250,000 you should be punished with tax increases. And remember, this year's tax increase could be followed by next year's tax increase, followed by the following year's tax increase.

Why would you invest in America with an anti-jobs, anti-business, anti-investors government, and that's why for the last month what we have seen is would it have been a problem with George W. Bush is now in the process of becoming a crisis because of Obama's policies.

And make no doubt about it, with the passage of that stimulus bill, President Obama owns this economy. The Democrats and Congress have done what he asked, and this is rapidly going to become his mess.

HANNITY: You know what, big government, Mr. Speaker, it doesn't work. We know that. It is literally killing the stock market, it's killing pensions, and, you know, below 7000 for the first time in 12 years. This is frightening because people are losing every bit of hard work that they have put in over entire lifetimes here, and it's only going to get worse with this plan.

But, Mr. Speaker, thank you for being with us. We appreciate it. From Santa Barbara.

GINGRICH: Thank you.

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Comments

By homer5 @ Sunday, March 08, 2009 7:50 PM

Newt..I listened to you on Hannity Friday you were a breath of fresh air. Your positive, confident and knowledgible responses were a great relief after the shrillness of Hannity. Years ago I listened on a regular basis to Regan's radio comments which aired in drive time. Isn't it about time you had your own time on the air where you can control the input and tone???

By matt.everly@palre.com @ Friday, March 06, 2009 2:46 PM

On the issues facing this great Country, you get it Newt. Please run in 2012. I would love to see you debate BO. He would not stand a chance.

By bear8631 @ Tuesday, March 03, 2009 1:30 PM

thank you for saying the things the people of this great nation nead to hear. obama is killing this nation with every word that he says.

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