Newt Gingrich : 2014-07-27 : Bigger than President Obama

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July 27, 2014

Newt Gingrich : Bigger than President Obama

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A Fox News poll this week reported that 58% of the American people felt the Obama Administration was incompetent. That sense of incompetence included 32% of Democrats, 67% of independents and 84% of Republicans.

As president, having your political opponents believe you are incompetent is not a shock. Having two out of three independents find you are incompetent is a shock. Having one out of three of your partisan supporters consider you incompetent may mean it is time for the Obama team to panic.

This survey on incompetence came just a few weeks after Gallup reported that 79% of the American people thought the federal government is corrupt. That is a 20% jump since 2006. More Americans thought their government was corrupt than the citizens of Brazil or Tajikistan. See my newsletter on the Gallup corruption data.

When four out of five citizens think their government is corrupt there is a big problem. When three out of five also think their government is incompetent the problem may be of historic proportions.

The very fabric of a free society begins to come apart when so many people deeply distrust their own government. This is the opposite of the "we the people" model the Founding Fathers fought for and established.

The first step toward a real solution is understanding that the problem is much bigger than President Obama and his administration.

The disastrous failures of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) were painfully visible during Katrina in the Bush Administration.

Jim Frogue's book, Stop Paying the Crooks, outlining well over $100 billion in theft from the federal bureaucracy annually, was published during the Bush Administration and remains true today.

The Veteran's Administration scandals were bad enough during the Bush years that candidate Obama campaigned on fixing them in 2008. They have since gotten much worse and the combination of corruption, dishonesty and incompetence is now at historic levels (see our VA map and our series of articles and newsletters outlining the VA problem and systems solutions).

The State Department incompetence at delivering effective aid in Afghanistan was painfully visible by 2002.

Studies of Pentagon inefficiency go back several decades. I participated in a Military Reform Caucus starting in 1981 and problems we identified under President Reagan have simply gotten worse.

Restoring integrity, effectiveness and accountability to the federal government will be an historic undertaking far bigger and more profound than simply defeating President Obama.

If the current laws and regulations remain in effect, real change will be impossible.

If the 'gotcha' style investigations and hearings remain the norm, real change will be impossible.

Congress and the President (if President Obama refuses, then the new president in 2017) have to make three big decisions.

1. The changes have to be systemic. For example, the problems at the VA are not isolated and based on individual failure. The VA is a system of incompetence with a culture of corruption. Spending billions more and hiring another 10,000 bureaucrats will simply create a bigger system of corrupt incompetence.

2. Technology has to play a major role in systemic reform. As we move from government out of the era of the manual typewriter to government in the era of the smartphone and iPad, we have to rethink capabilities and requirements. Carly Fiorina's description of the 21st century as digital, mobile, virtual and personal is a good framework for rethinking all government programs. Gavin Newsom's Citizenville is a good introduction to the potential for modern technology to empower citizens rather than bureaucrats. Steve Goldsmith's upcoming book The Responsive City has similar ideas and examples. My book, Breakout, outlines the scale of change a smartphone empowered 21st century will achieve.

3. Systems thinking and technological empowerment mean the end of the tenured, untouchable, unaccountable unionized civil service bureaucracy as we have known it. No modern corporation could survive under federal government work rules. The current resistance to change at the VA is a classic example. If the 800-plus page national union contract (on top of a number of additional local contracts) and the current inability to reward great performers while firing bad performers are not changed, nothing serious will get done in fixing the VA. It is that clear and that simple.

Ask your congressman and senators and every presidential candidate if they will work to implement these three steps. Just before an election is the time to get their attention.

We can restore competence and integrity to government but we the people have to fight for it and insist on it.

"We have to frankly break the back of the secular-socialist machine, elect people committed to representing the American people, and then methodically rip the system apart."

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Newt Gingrich vis-a-via Nancy Pelosi, Carbon Trading, Global Warming (2008) : A Critical Examination of News Media Myths

Primary Author : Free Republic's "Cute Puppy" : 2014-07-26

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Conservatives have questioned Newt Gingrich's action and words with statements such as these:

Newt is a fan of carbon trading, the source of cash flow for global governance under the UN.

How could Newt, “make the biggest mistake of his life.” ??? Is or was he a naïve child, overwhelmed by wolves of disinformation?

Not only because of his personal life, but because of that global warming ad with him and Nancy Pelosi on a loveseat telling us how important it is to tax us into penury in order to stop the make-believe global warming bogey man.

Actually, oversimplified and not quite accurate description of what happened.

Newt is often “lost in translarion” and quite often “cuts his losses”;

does not bother to waste time explaining to those who don’t understand or are “invested in not understanding”

what he says or does; which in politics could be.

What really happened is much more prosaic, but does explain Newt's “the dumbest thing I’ve done in recent years” statement ...

which refers not to Newt's attempt to wrest the “green” / “environmental” issues from near-exclusive province of Democratic Party,

but to the political aftermath of the ad photo repeatedly posted as the “proof” that he is the AGW Global Warming advocate and believer.

In politics, taking chances to do something productive rather than just talking party line is seldom rewarded.

From Pelosi Fires back at Gingrich - FR, post #9, by untwist, 2014 January 08

..... Newt made a mistake sitting down with Nancy, but he never bought into the Pelosi / Obama Cap and Trade model.

The leftist model was based on huge penalties and bankrupting localities with taxes if they do not move on the federal govt’s demands.

Gingrich favored a business incentive, tax-break driven model for companies that invest in green energy.

He was snookered by the left who wanted to use him for leverage to push their wild plans. He agreed in principle to invest in alternative energy.

He never was in line with Pelosi’s model for strong-handed leftist coercion. This is what has not been explained properly.

From Pelosi Fires back at Gingrich - Free Republic, post #27; 2014 January 08

..... Newt keeps trying to co-opt the “green movement” so it would become easier to promote more of real “alternative” sources of energy (like nuclear) instead of cap-and-trade and “carbon taxes.” Co-opt the “green” movement and propose investing in cheaper and cleaner domestic sources of energy, contrast it with the pain of expense, scarcity and loss of mobility and freedom of Gore / Pelosi / Kerry liberal “solutions”

and then the real goals of phony “green environmentalists” - money from taxes and expensive wind/solar energy - are gone ... and with the money, a movement itself will fail or join Republicans.

Defunding by co-opting (instead of “cooperating” with them in their goals) was the real goal of Newt getting into the arena .....< snip>

..... Meanwhile, Gingrich’s staff balked at what Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection wanted the former speaker to say in the ad.

They refused to clear the words “crisis” to describe climate change or for him to say; “We need new laws”; to address it .....< snip> ..... “

We rejected the initial script because it stated positions that we just didn’t believe were true,” said Tyler. “They wanted Newt to basically talk about global warming, which we would not do.

At the time, ‘climate change’ was seen as a safe thing to say.” .....< snip>

About a month after the commercial began airing, Gingrich’s now defunct political action group, American Solutions for Winning the Future, began its own advertising campaign; a pro- oil “Drill Here, Drill Now, Pay Less,” mantra

aimed at blocking legislation co-sponsored by Senators Joseph I. Lieberman, a Connecticut independent, and John Warner, a Virginia Republican, to combat climate change by curbing carbon emissions......< snip>

Other facts debunking the multitude of myths about Gingrich are in these links / references, for those who are really interested, so here are some myth-busters (some posts contain links and references within them, so please forgive repetition) :

References:

Gingrich: If it comes to a shutdown, the GOP should stick to its principles -
Free Republic, post #104, 2012 February 12

Gingrich admits ABC claim was false [Politico] -
Free Republic, post #32 / WSJ, No-Fault Newt, by James Taranto, 2012 January 20

“Cain/Gingrich 2012”? -
Free Republic, posts #64, #69, 2011 October 06

‘Stop Romney’ Christian conservatives give nod to Santorum ahead of S.C. balloting -
Free Republic, posts #67, #19, 2012 January 15

To Newt Gingrich haters (vanity) -
Free Republic, posts #1, #122, 2012 April 13

Gingrich: The challenge confronting Republicans -
Free Republic, posts #1, #2, #26, #81, 2012 December 24

Gingrich urges U.S. Republicans to move beyond Obama opposition -
Free Republic, posts #59, #60, 2013 August 15

Trick or truth! Can you even tell the difference? -
Free Republic, posts #14, #17, 2014 May 18

Gingrich’s Secret Weapon: Newt Inc. -
Free Republic, posts #1, #2, #14, 2012 January 25

Does Ryan Now Agree with Gingrich? [And now, here’s the rest of the story] -
Free Republic, posts #43, 2012 February 18

Reagan Had the Recipe for Success. Let’s Follow It (Newt Gingrich in WSJ) -
Free Republic / WSJ, posts #1, #17, #19, 2012 December 29

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