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."

“When I first ran for Congress I was the natural candidate of most environmental groups…” Newt Gingrich, “Winning The Future,” Page 168

“If the United States challenged Europe and Japan to join it in financing a world biodiversity refuge system and tied foreign aid into the process of maintaining biodiversity, we could probably save a very high percentage of the earth’s biological richness…” Newt Gingrich, “Winning The Future,” Pages 170-171

“As a young professor at West Georgia College, I taught in the second Earth Day in 1971 and coordinated an interdisciplinary environmental studies program.” Newt Gingrich, “Real Change,” Page 196

“That is why I worked so diligently as Speaker of the House to protect the Endangered Species Act, historic legislation that has been mired in controversy…The Endangered Species Act is an excellent example of the value of civility, consultation and collaboration.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Pages XII & 51

“For that reason, we have supported its (the Endangered Species Act’s) continuation against all challenges by private citizens, interest groups, and congressional opponents.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 53

“The U.S. government operates endowments for the humanities and the arts…Perhaps, it is time we consider a new endowment for conservation and the environment.” “Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Pages 115-116 [NOTE: As Speaker, Gingrich told conservatives he wanted to eliminate the wasteful National Endowment for the Arts. Now he cites it as an example of a government spending spree that needs to be duplicated.]

“Significant resources should be set aside to protect hallowed sites such as the Galapagos Islands, the Virguna Volcanoes in Central Africa, and Georgia’s Okenfenokee Swamp, to name a few.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 117

Where does that end?

John Muir, for most of his adult life, experienced nature in spiritual overtones…He even favored using the armed forces to enforce environmental law…However, with the inexorable advance of the urban realm, the defense of forested land assumes a greater urgency as we strive to sustain the highest-quality standards for our nation’s air, water, and land.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 127

“Our national parks and wildlife reserves require more vigorous protection. With an eye toward strengthening his environmental legacy in the 2007 federal budget, President Bush requested the largest increase for national park funding in our nation’s history. We should expect nothing less than excellence from our national park system.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Pages 130-131

“Far from becoming a new source of global discord, environmentalism, which binds nations to a common concern, will be the best thing that’s ever happened to international relations.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Pages 149-150

“We will need to organize a series of high-level global conferences that focus on specific [environmental] problems…” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 158

“…the type of arduous research that produces real breakthroughs can only be funded by astute governments.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 167

“America used to be that kind of government [that spent millions of tax dollars on “energy research” welfare programs,] but our commitments have wavered in recent years so government incentives for energy research will be issues in future political campaigns.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 1 +667

“Mobilizing other countries to join us will not be as easy as it may appear. Many of the countries that signed and ratified the Kyoto Protocol are lagging behind on their commitments.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 168

“The act [Endangered Species Act] has been, by any measure, a very successful guardian of wildlife and habitat and any attempt to weaken it should be resisted.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 170

“…our children, according to Louv, run the risk of acquiring ‘nature deficit disorder,’ a malady that he describes as a contributing factor to a recognized mental health construct, attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, or ADHD. Nature deficit disorder, not yet acknowledged by scientists or clinicians, is a working hypothesis that Louv believes helps to explain the onset of ADHD, and he proposes that exposure to nature should be offered as a therapy for children who have difficulty attending to stimuli and learning in conventional classrooms. His call for research in this domain is compelling.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 182

“Local governments operate much closer to the origin of environmental problems, and they have begun to provide tax incentives and large cash rewards for environmental compliance…While the motivation is driven by the application of tax dollars, the effect is rewarding rather than punitive…” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 194

“…our government, at all levels, must be modernized to successfully partner, let alone compete, with the private sector.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 196

“In spite of the demonstrated liberal leanings in academia, we have nothing but respect for the nation’s scientists. They represent America’s best hope to protect the environment. We support a dramatic increase in science and technology research and development because we desperately need to understand global climate change and other environmental phenomena.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 201

“Needless to say, an appropriate and significant investment of public and private funding to renew the earth will pay dividends.” Newt Gingrich, “A Contract With The Earth,” Page 202

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Carry_Okie,

I'll get to the rebuttal, know that ...

Meanwhile ... trying not to laugh ... asking if Gov. Jerry "Moonbeam" Brown wrote the foreword ...

You're trying to label Newt Gingrich as an "environmental progressive" ...

when you're the author of this bizarro-world Greenpeace-Sierra Club nonsense/propaganda ?

Your scholarly tome reminds me of a "genuine" nutcase "Johnny M" who lived north of Pineville, Louisiana ...

who called his combination "Blueberry Farm / Bee Haven" as "Noah's Ark" ...

complete with a (very) large sign by the front gate ...

so that the "spiritually unenlighted" would someday find his humble "religious lunacy" a safe haven for when God's Mighty Judgement arrived.

Meanwhile ... the "good friar" Mr. M forced his wife and daughters to work summers in his HOT Louisiana Blueberry fields ... FORCING them to wear long, dark dresses.

Please Sir, reassure us that you're NOT that kind of environmental-spiritual nutcase ...

Shemitta: For the Land is Mine:

Revealed for the first time...

The Sabbath for the Land, ..... As it was meant to be:

..... The Ultimate in Limited Self-Government

An instruction so simple a child could do it, but Biblical scholars have missed it, completely.

A lifestyle common for thousands of years, totally alien to a modern urban public that craves it.

A comprehensive system to assure productive land and national prosperity, yet it has never been done before.

Shemitta weaves together a brilliantly-conceived strategy for national defense, an elegantly simple method to maintain a productive environment, and a tragically-unrecognized socio-economic design - to maximize total economic productivity, establish justice, and preserve a united people...

You commented ...

We've had plenty of your type of tactics when Arnold Schwarzenegger was running for the RINOS in the recall election in California

Does the "we" refer to you and Gov. Moonbeam ...

or just your Whole Earth granola-buddies over at Greenpeace and the Sierra-Club ?

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You're trying to label Newt Gingrich as an "environmental progressive" ...

Newt did that by writing posiitions advocating environmental progressivism. I didn't. He's the one sitting with Nancy Pelosi on a couch. Not me.

You're not doing so hot.

when you're the author of this bizarro-world Greenpeace-Sierra Club nonsense/propaganda ?

A baseless spin job won't cut it for citation. I propose a free-market system with which to eliminate the need for regulatory bureaucracy and you rail. I guess you must prefer the unconstitutional fascist system Newt does.

Your scholarly tome reminds me of a "genuine" nutcase "Johnny M" who lived north of Pineville, Louisiana ...

You chose to ignore the the reviews. One of those is Senator Malcolm Wallop (Dick Cheney's mentor). His review is here. He was neither a goofball nor a liberal. One of the others is a long standing FReeper here. I have a long record on FR of conservatism. So you are going to lose with that game.

Re Shemitta: Please Sir, reassure us that you're NOT that kind of environmental-spiritual nutcase ...

It was what I said it was and more. In fact, I am often offered the criticism that I reduce the Torah to mechanism instead of spirituality. It is the opposite of what you baselessly imply. So, you are attacking the Biblical a scholarly exposition on the national defense, social welfare, and environmental management systems found in the Torah that were built entirely upon voluntary and individual action forming up a national militia without a king as something other than conservative? On FR?? Really???

Does the "we" refer to you and Gov. Moonbeam ...

Oh, so you didn't research that either? I see. Well no, the "we" were the backers of Tom McClintock, the conservative in the recall election. I guess you were a fan of the Grovelator. See tag line; I've had it for years.

or just your Whole Earth granola-buddies over at Greenpeace and the Sierra-Club ?

For fourteen years on FR, I have held that the Sierra Club and Greenpeace were the crooked tools of tax-exempt corporate foundations whose directors belong in jail. You even ignored on the page you "researched" blowing the Sierra Club Fire Policy out of the water on technical grounds.

I guess you're still full of crap to fling, but you've not refuted a single citation to Newt Gingrich's own words in print. I suggest you go back to your handlers and tell them you've got a problem. Maybe Newt wants to learn something from one of the peons he's taken for granted. It's high time he did.

I hope that your "environmental wacko book" didn't contain such factual errors, as you're suggesting above.

He let himself be used for that and did support action against the bogus claims of anthropogenic climate change. Your spin does nothing to correct the record. He wrote his book and you've done NOTHING to refute a single charge. Instead, and because you've got nothing, you attack me with totally unsupported charges.

In other words, your attacks are typical of a Marxist. Is that what you are? Two can play that game.

So ... exactly what kind of an "engineer" are you, anyway?

Engineering systems, Harvey Mudd College. I have patents for products made on process equipment I designed and for which I built the prototypes. They were installed in multiple countries, in which I had to obtain environmental permits. I was the designer, builder, and project manager working side-by-side with millwrights, mechanics, and electricians. The first process saved the company with a new product made in a chemical plant we introduced in but ten months, including qualification with the FDA and the BAAQMD. The second patented product they failed to adopt in time because it was so innovative it scared them, and the company died as I predicted it would if they didn't.

You have accomplished nothing so far but using excess space on the page, and no, I'm no devotee of Ron or Rand Paul. You can learn more about my positions here. I am an innovator, not an ideologue like Newt. He's talented, but he has a lot to learn.

Somebody in this exercise in futilite arguing is oblivious to the obvious and it certainly insn't you, Carry_Okie!!!

The person buzzing around your accurate and truthful postings and writings with excrement still dripping from their many landings on cow pies, should probably remember what people arguing in New York City bars are prone to say… "And you can look it up!"

The Knute is an even worse "political opportunist" than Schwartzenrennegger since he's been doing it his whole adult life. He's about as good at it as he would be at starring in "action movies" on the big screen! He is the epitome of "GANG-GREEN!!!"

Yup! I'll vouch for you as being one of the most consistent and honest conservatives I've ever encountered in either public or private life. At times I've had some initial trouble digesting your concepts and ideas, but in the end they have won me over as tremendously enlightened and rock-solid in conservative principles!

Gingrich, by contrast is all over the place, constantly venturing outside the common sense arena of real conservatism. Proclaiming grandios schemes designed to make "GANG-GREEN," GovernMental EnvironMental and all the collective communists in the so-called "Not-For-Profit" (but for huge salaries and expense accounts with low taxes) crowd swoon over what he hopes they will consider some kind of "enlightened" conservative they might be able to support… Phhhhhht!!!

Anyone can look at your record my good FRiend and clearly see there is absolutely nothing to argue about here!!!

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