Exactly Wrong on the Economy

I’m beginning this week by doing something I don’t usually do: thanking the New York Times.

Last week, this was the Times headline over a story about President Obama’s budget:

“A Bold Plan Sweeps Away Reagan Ideas”

And so I want to thank the New York Times for portraying the Obama budget for what it is: The most audacious attempt in generations to create a government-centered, bureaucratically controlled country.

“Never Let A Crisis Go To Waste”

We should have seen it coming.

Way back in November, when the Obama team was still flush with victory in the election, Obama White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel laid out what he called “Rule One”:

“Never let a crisis go to waste.”

The Obama budget plan unveiled last week is proof that the goal of the administration is not economic recovery. The goal is an unprecedented shift of power to politicians and bureaucrats.

Which America Do We Want?

Ronald Reagan believed that at the center of American life was the individual. The entrepreneur. The worker. The doer. The family man and woman.

The Obama budget reveals a very different vision of the men and women at the center of American life.

They are the politicians. The bureaucrats. The interest groups that support an ever expanding government sector.

And so the American people are presented with a real choice: Which America do we want?

An America in which citizens and entrepreneurs are free and hold the power?

Or an American in which politicians and bureaucrats dominate and are in charge?

The New Religion of the Secular Left

The first month and a half of the Obama Administration has presented Americans with another choice to make.

The choice is captured best in the administration’s announcement last week that it intends to rescind the Bush Administration rule that allowed doctors, nurses, pharmacists and other health care workers to refuse to perform acts that violate their religious and moral beliefs.

I’ll have more to say about this in the future. But for now, let me just point out what it bodes for religious freedom in America.

The Obama Administration’s reversal of what has become known as the “conscience provision” to protect doctors and nurses who have a moral objection to participating in or performing abortions is a direct assault on religious liberty.

It marks the establishment of a state-sponsored religion of secular leftism. And it gives this new religion the right to eliminate the religious liberty of all others that it deems inappropriate.

It, too, presents the American people with a choice of two competing futures. A future of traditional American respect for religious freedom. Or a future in which the values of the secular left over-ride our religious liberty wherever they come into conflict.

The U.S. Has the Second Highest Business Taxes in the World

Concentrating more power in Washington politicians and bureaucrats means government dictating what it deems are the “right” choices to individuals and businesses, rather than giving them the freedom and incentive to make their own choices.

For example, in his address to the joint session of Congress last week, the President announced his intention to punish “corporations that ship our jobs overseas.”

The United States imposes the second highest business taxes of any industrialized nation in the world. While countries like Ireland tax corporations at 12.5%, and even our neighbor Canada is moving its national business tax rate to 15% (the lowest among the G-7 countries), the United States taxes businesses at a whopping 35%. And a number of states have corporate income taxes on top of that.

Inevitably, high taxes in the U.S. cause some businesses to locate some or all of their business in lower tax countries overseas.

Don’t Punish Businesses for Locating Overseas. Encourage Businesses to Come to America to Create American Jobs

But if President Obama were serious about wanting to create jobs, he wouldn’t be thinking up ways to punish companies for wanting to relocate overseas.

If President Obama were serious about creating and keeping American jobs he would be thinking of ways to make companies want to bring their jobs and capital to America -- and keep them here.

Americans Solutions has created 12 American Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity. Our No. 3 recommendation for jobs and prosperity is for America to match Ireland’s 12.5% business tax.

That would do more than anything in the President’s budget to accomplish his often-repeated goal of “creating and saving” American jobs.

What Entrepreneur Wants Chris Dodd to Dictate How Much He Can Earn?

As it stands, what entrepreneur in his or her right mind would risk the time, effort and capital to start a business in America?

So Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) can act as income dictator and tell them how much they can earn?

So a hidden energy tax can dramatically increase the cost of manufacturing, not to mention heating the business and transporting employees?

So union bosses can deny American workers the right to a private ballot?

Who wants to create a job in America at a time when Washington, D.C., not New York or Silicon Valley, is fast becoming the controlling center of American business?

Who wants to create jobs in America if politics trumps economics when it comes to determining who succeeds and who fails?

Yes to Bureaucracies, No to Charities

It’s not just in the area of jobs that the Obama budget sends a message that he would shift power dramatically from the people to the politicians.

At a time when charitable donations are suffering because of the economic downturn, President Obama’s budget discourages charitable giving by those Americans with the most to give by limiting the charitable giving deduction.

And at a time when cratering housing prices are driving the recession, President Obama’s budget discourages home ownership by those Americans who could most positively impact housing prices by limiting the mortgage interest deduction.

President Obama’s Budget Message: Bureaucratic government is the solution, and we no longer have a choice about it.

Attorney General Holder: Come to Detroit. Let’s Talk About Cowardice

Another clue to how the Obama Administration views the intelligence and capability of the American people came when Attorney General Eric Holder recently called America “a nation of cowards” when it comes to race.

Photo Credit: Callista Gingrich, Gingrich Productions

See more of Callista's pictures at GingrichProductions.com

In my speech to the Conservative Political Action Conference (CPAC) on Friday I issued a challenge to Attorney General Holder that I repeat here:

Mr. Attorney General, the American people aren’t cowards. Quite the opposite. They have the courage to demand that their leaders tell them the truth.

So in the spirit of courageous truth telling, I invite you to come to Detroit to discuss politics and race. I invite you to discuss the failure of the policies and institutions that you support in a city which those policies and institutions have failed more than any other.

Let’s have the courage to debate the failure of the Detroit school system. Let’s have the courage to discuss the bad policies, bad ideas and bad bureaucracies that have taken Detroit from No. 1 in the nation in per capita income to No. 62.

This is a serious invitation to the Attorney General to have a dialogue with me about what the residents of cities like Detroit need most: More talk about race, or leadership that believes they have a God-given right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness just like the rest of us.

Let’s Have a Debate, America

I’ve had some strong words for the Obama Administration today, but my real message is to the American people:

Now that President Obama has revealed the direction in which he wants to take the country, let’s have a debate. Let’s choose up teams.

If you believe the best way to create jobs is to give more money to bureaucrats in Washington and more power to politicians in Congress, you have a team.

If you think the best way to create jobs is to make life easier for people who want to work hard, take risks and create businesses and wealth, you have a team.

If you think America should be a place where politics trumps economics and religion, you have a team.

But if you think America is a place where freedom trumps it all, you have a team.

Let’s let the American people choose. Which America do you want?

Your friend,

P.S. Secure the Border, Don’t Ban Guns: I’ve spoken out in the past about the bloody and escalating drug wars in Mexico that are threatening the very sovereignty of that nation as well as the safety of both Mexican and U.S. citizens along the border. It’s a very serious situation. But now some politicians on both sides of the border are using the fact that U.S weapons are involved in the drug violence to call for more gun control. Mexican authorities are blaming the U.S. for the failure to stop the smuggling of U.S. guns into Mexico, which is, to say the least, ironic, coming from a government that has long turned a blind eye to human smuggling across the border. In any case, the answer isn’t to further limit 2nd Amendment rights but to secure the border. Now, more than ever.

P.P.S. Have Your Own Rendezvous With Destiny: Our new movie, Ronald Reagan: Rendezvous with Destiny had its West Coast premiere yesterday at the Reagan Ranch Center in Santa Barbara, Calif.. Callista and I are very pleased with the enthusiastic reception the movie has received. On March 13, it will be shown at the Reagan Library in Simi Valley. For more details, go to www.gingrichproductions.com.

P.P.P.S. Triple First, Then Halve: Speaking of the Obama budget, my daughter, columnist Jackie Cushman, has an ingenious take on the accounting gimmicks it employs. The key: Triple first, then halve. You can read this and more of Jackie’s columns at www.JackieCushman.com.

AMERICAN SOLUTIONS UPDATE:

“Freedom Not Fear”

Last week at CPAC, American Solutions announced the launch of the “Freedom Not Fear” campaign to defend the rights of American workers.

Leading this effort as National Chairman is Saul Anuzis, former chairman of the Michigan GOP.

The “Save American Jobs Project” is a grassroots, Internet-based campaign to mobilize citizens to defeat the so-called Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA). If EFCA became law, workers would be asked to publicly sign cards in front of union organizers, potentially subjecting them to harassment or intimidation.

“We need freedom not fear in the workplace to be competitive in the global economy,” said Gingrich.

To learn more about the “Save American Jobs Project” and petition drive, visit www.AmericanSolutions.com.

Travel ASAP

You might wonder why, in the midst of a recession, American Solutions is focusing so much on air traffic control modernization. It’s because we must rely on innovation and new technology if we are going to compete successfully on the international stage. Infrastructure/Airline reform is the 12th solution in our “12 Solutions for Jobs and Prosperity”. Many airline delays are simply a product of government’s inefficiency and it doesn’t have to be this way!

WHAT YOU CAN DO:

1. Show your support for this effort and send a message to the airline community when you get a free Travel ASAP LUGGAGE TAG after a donation of $20 or more to American Solutions.

2. CONNECT WITH US! Simply text "AmericanSolutions" (Not caps sensitive. No spaces.) to "66937" and you'll be connected to the American Solutions Travel ASAP team to receive regular updates on this effort!

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Comments

By fairmark @ Tuesday, March 10, 2009 10:37 PM

I simply won't be able to retire without working overtime and receiving a gross paycheck. Now, the more I work, the more I'm taxed. I would gladly work a "McJob" if I received my gross paycheck, but what's the use now? People need to be able to live on smaller jobs like these, working overtime, to stimulate the economy. Those jobs are out there, but what's the use in doing them? Cutting business tax, yes, but abolish the personal income tax first. A VAT might be acceptable then.

By tinwhistler @ Monday, March 09, 2009 4:08 PM

The Obama Stimulus Package is focused on Democratic special interest groups, including labor unions in the construction, green manufacturing, government, transportation, and education sectors, with trickle down to the auto unions. If spending money were the solution, George W. Bush would be an economic hero.

The solution is to create real, permanent jobs. To create jobs, companies need capital for developing new products, improving productivity, expanding facilities, purchasing capital equipment, and marketing. To increase available capital, the quickest method is to eliminate the Capital Gains Tax. In Fiscal 2008, the United States had Capital Gains Revenues of $122 billion, according to the Treasury Department. In 2009, these revenues are likely to drop dramatically, perhaps as much as $40 billion, due to declining stock and housing prices. In 2010, Obama has promised to allow the Capital Gains Tax Rate to increase, which will further reduce tax revenues and available capital in future years.

The global psychological impact of eliminating onerous taxes on capital is well worth the $70 billion or so in lost 2009 tax revenue, which will be offset by the resulting increase in jobs and associated income tax revenues.

In order to further increase corporate capital, eliminating the Corporate Income Tax and Sarbanes-Oxley would be an instant stimulus. In Fiscal 2008, the revenue collected from corporate income taxes was $304 billion and 2009 will likely be less. Another positive impact would be the reduction in costs for corporate tax compliance, estimated at $148 billion in 2005 by the Tax Foundation. The lawyers and accountants no longer needed for tax compliance are smart, and would start new companies, create new jobs, and better contribute to the economy.

Combined, this Capital Stimulus Package would cost no more than $400 billion in tax revenues, less than half the cost of the Democratic-Marxist spending package, providing a direct stimulus of $550 billion in available capital for lending and investment in jobs.

With no business taxes, additional trillions of dollars of investment would flood into the United States from all over the world, creating a job and economic boom, and corporations would rush to move their operations to the United States, bring jobs back home.

Once we have recovered our economy, we could then eliminate the root cause of our economic and social problems, the second plank of the Communist Manifesto and known to us as the Individual Income Tax, to reward hard work and wealth creation, and replace it with a National Sales Tax to encourage saving and investing – change we really can believe in.

By galax13 @ Saturday, March 07, 2009 8:27 AM

RE: Economy

abolish labor unions (th whole world hates me)

wage price controls asap

m and a not m and m's (e.g. more consolidations now)

more participation and committment from the private sector asap to turn around economy, not just govt stimulus to augment (like that word show off) the trillion dollar and counting deficit

no implementation of arms reduction. hopefully just a piece of paper for fydo

cheers i mean cheerio(s)

By JimOakley @ Saturday, March 07, 2009 7:46 AM

Conservatives have a very big problem. Most voters are unaware what is really happening. The left has an advantage with media bias so that the liberal media nearly decides who is president. Newt, Palin, Bush, Cheney and other are mischaracterized in an extreme way. Liberals always choose a symbol for the Republican party and then they deliberately give a false impression to the public to demonize that person. Every liberal around picks up on the talking points and repeats them until there believed by the public and generalized to all conservatives. This mischaracterization is treated as fact and affects the election. Foxnews helps; but you need to remember that many people of lower income get limited cable TV that does not include Foxnews. Most people that voted for Obama do not know who Bill Ayres is, and do not know that Bush tried to increase oversight of Fanny and Freddy as early as 2003 but was stopped mostly by Democrats. P.S. Newt please run for president.

By FreedomLover @ Friday, March 06, 2009 10:54 PM

Newt...I have a colossal proposal to put Americans back to work and make America again the leader of the free world in manufacturing and business. I offered this solution to Gov. Janet Napolatano staff last year and got no where, except my proposal sounded interesting, but was to big of a program for her and Arizona and her staff wouldn't let me talk with her and said they'd get back to me.....and never did.

As the CEO of a consumer product manufacturing company, my idea after returning from a Trade Show in Main Land, China, where I was having some of my products manufactured was to discuss building a manufacturing zone on the Arizona border on the U.S. side of it. I wanted to put together a business conference with the Governors of the border states, CA,AZ,NM and TX along with manufacturing heads here in America to talk about the possibility of doing a Joint Venture between the United States and Mexico. Using the Commerce Dept. of the U.S. and the Head of Commerce for Mexico....our two countries could enter into an agreement to build our factories on the border and use Mexican labor to keep labor costs down. U.S. labor would be used for the higher tech portion of manufacturing and between our two countries we could lower manufacturing costs, use our highway system to transport goods efficiently across the U.S. to all ports and begin to become the manufacturing center of the World again, eliminating our dependancy on China...bring full employment to Americans and stop the illegal flow of Mexican immigrants into this country by providing work for them in their own country. America could share revenues of the endeavor with Mexico and we would all win. Finally, we could get rid of the Gov. tariffs placed on products manufactured in foreign countries, another economic plus to keep our costs down and make us more competitive.

Instead of the all the European countries manufacturing goods in China, they would would employ our factories here to make all of their goods for them. We would become the economic force for the World if we would consider this option. Every country knows that American goods are the best made products anyway.

We send our manufacturing currently to China....this would bring that production back home and solve the immigration issue at the same time and as a side benefit giving Mexico and it's citizens their respect back.

By Jolt @ Friday, March 06, 2009 11:26 AM

Obama is a puppet. He needs a teleprompter wherever he goes. Why? Because he needs to be fed his information. He's just a speaker for the left, not the leader of this Country.

By For_The_Gipper @ Thursday, March 05, 2009 10:54 PM

heh. I'll bet deep down Obama actually likes Reagan. Although in terms of policy completly opposite. I am curious did anyone read the report where we should give arab countries a nuclear bomb? It is a good idea, but do you think Iran is deterable? Do we really want to give the ME a nuclear umbrella? Well perhaps that idea is better than the alternative.

I understand its better than an arms race there. Can a nuclear or (dirty bomb) be detonated like a suicide blast? I am know weapons expert but I doubt it. God I hope not.

Loved your Reagan movie Newt, glad to see it was well recived.

By catclaw @ Thursday, March 05, 2009 10:48 AM

If legislative earmarks are to be considered "no bid contracts", surley all politicians will support Obama's transparency and require all political contributions by individuals and companies who will be directly benefited by the passage of any bill that contains earmanks be disclosed before the vote.

By bulldog66 @ Wednesday, March 04, 2009 9:17 PM

Mark You raise an interesting approach with the term limits. I have always felt that whether city county state or National it would be good to have the 10 year rule you mention. 30 years in public service is long enough to serve as you very seldom see our Military careers stretch past that length. If our Republicans would strive to elect folks that would give 10 years of service locally, then 10 at the state level and then 10 at the National level our country and we as the People would be well served. I will keep reading to determine just how we can make this happen ASAP.

By Hot @ Wednesday, March 04, 2009 7:27 PM

Correct on all but two things.
It is a Republician and Democrat thing.
They spend all their time fighting each other to do what the voters sent them there to do.

Common Sense? MOST American voters have none, they put Bush and Obama in office.

O-One
B-Big
A-Ass
M-Mistake
A-America

OBAMA

By markvoss @ Wednesday, March 04, 2009 3:10 PM

Here is a very plain and simple solution to all of these problems. I sent it to everyone.

Ok - This IS NOT a Democrat/Republican/Independent-THING
And so we all need to STOP IT.

WE MUST ALL DO THIS BEFORE WE LOSE OUR COUNTRY...

Think about this. If you were a small or medium business would you do any hiring right now? Would you be spending any money to expand right now? I know I wouldn't. Do you know how much Money a $$$-TRILLION -$$$ is???

Last May the market was over 1300 now it's less than 700 and evrytime the Obama Administration does anything it drops more. They are doing everything exactly opposite of what they should be doing...

Call your reps and the White House or even better send them a letter and say simply this in great big letters...

STOP (ALL) BAIL-OUTS & STOP (ALL) PORK SPENDING - PERIOD
And STOP DOING ANYTHING THAT HAMPERS BUSINESS AND GROWTH... Just how stupid is it for us taxpayers to be forced to pay for tattoo removal for Californians??? This is just one of the thousands of these crazy wastes of our money…

AMERICANs think about this... Doing just these four things will get us out of this almost overnight and cause our nation to boom like never before in history...

#1. Invite God and his laws to be our guiding force AGAIN...

#2. Get rid of every form of Federal & State taxes and bring into law the Nation Sales Tax of 20% with a forever binding clause (never ever to be set higher than 20% but could be lowered)...

#3. Immediately begin ENERGY Independence by drilling for our Oil and Natural Gas on and off shore and in ANWAR, build as many new refineries as we need, build at least 50 nuclear power plants, develop oil shale, and clean coal technology. Build and develop Wind and Solar Farms, develop any and all forms as possible of green technology. Keep government out of it and let only the private sector handle all of it. This will practically instantly create MILLIONS of new jobs which is what we need so bad right now…

#4. Make every State and Federal office a (five year term), and anyone person could never serve in the same office for more than two terms. Plus a person could serve no more than four terms in their lifetime - period...

It’s Just Good Old Common Sense…

Feel free to just print this make copies and Mail-Fax-Email to your Congressmen, Senators, Governors and President Obama... Please Email this to everyone you know...

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