Did you catch Newt Gingrich on Glenn Beck’s radio show this morning? I only heard the tail end of the interview, but read the full transcript HERE. Although he’s not always easy to compartmentalize, the interview does provide an insight into Gingrich’s philosophy on the government ‘s role in our lives – and it’s way too intrusive for my taste.
The Newtster frequently comes across as conservative – if so, he’s of the Big Benevolent Government species – which is to say, he’s not really a conservative at all. There’s no questioning his intelligence, and he can certainly clean up in a debate. But Newt is a member in good standing of the elite ruling class. He fundamentally he does not believe that the peasants are capable of self-governance.
But he does believe in the environment…generally speaking of course.
Newt’s answers to several of Beck’s questions were clearly not the responses of a free-market, limited government conservative.
For instance:
On industry subsidies: “depends on what you’re subsidizing” What if we don’t want our tax dollars to subsidize anything?
On healthcare : “ …we ought to have some requirement to either have health insurance or you post a bond or in some way you indicate you are going to be held accountable.” An individual mandate? No thanks!
On climate change: “I believe in the environment in general… (HUH?) I think that there is evidence on both sides of the climate change argument, and the point I was making was in a situation where, for example, having a larger nuclear program reduces carbon in the atmosphere, it’s a prudent thing to look at nuclear as one of the actions.”
The only “evidence” on the AGW side of the argument is phony evidence.
On Medicare reform: “I also think you can reshape Medicare but I think you have to do it in a way that people find it desirable and that people think and that people trust you. I helped reform Medicare in 1996 in a way that saved $200 billion and we had no major opposition to it. And people concluded that we had thought it through and we were doing the right thing and they were comfortable with it.” Yes, it’s really just a matter of herding the masses along, reeducating them so they’ll come to accept with what’s best for them…
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However Gingrich would personally characterize his political philosophy, what it really comes down to is the freedom-killing belief that the government knows how to spend your money better than you do.
From the evidence so far, the best thing about Newt…? He’s not Obama.
