Difference between revisions of "Newt Gingrich"

From Conservapedia
Jump to: navigation, search
(adding defaultsort)
Line 87: Line 87:
 
[[Category: Conservatives]]
 
[[Category: Conservatives]]
 
[[Category:Fiscal Conservatives]]
 
[[Category:Fiscal Conservatives]]
 +
[[Category:The 100 Americans The Left Hates Most]]

Revision as of 06:00, June 30, 2010

Newt Gingrich
NewtGingrich.jpg
U.S. Representative from Georgia's 6th Congressional District
From: January 3, 1979 – January 3, 1999
Predecessor Jack Flynt
Successor Johnny Isakson
Information
Party Republican
Spouse(s) Jackie Battley (1962-1981)
Marianne Ginther (1981-2000)
Callista Gingrich
Religion Roman Catholic

Newt Gingrich (born June 17, 1943) served as Speaker of the House from 1995 until 1999, preceding J. Dennis Hastert and succeeding Thomas Foley. He is widely considered the mastermind of the 1994 Republican Revolution and "Contract with America" that led the Republican Party to capture the majority in the U.S. House of Representatives for the first time since 1954. He was considered the chief Republican opposition to President Bill Clinton in the 1990's.

Popular with conservatives, Gingrich is a television commentator and the author of nineteen books including 11 fiction and non-fiction New York Times best-sellers.

Under his leadership, Congress passed welfare reform, passed the first balanced budget in a generation, and passed the first tax cut in sixteen years. In addition, the Congress restored funding to strengthen defense and intelligence capabilities, an action later lauded by the bipartisan 9/11 Commission.

Gingrich's congressional career ended in 1999 when he resigned from Congress after poor showings from Republicans in the midterm elections and being investigated by the House ethics panel:

"Democrats filed 84 politically motivated ethics charges against Gingrich. All of them were found to be without merit. The last three were dismissed on Oct. 10, 1998. The fact is, not a single ethics charge filed against Speaker Gingrich was ever found to be based in fact -- not one. Gingrich was cleared of any and all wrongdoing.
The fallout in the case resulted in an IRS investigation and a federal court case. Ultimately, Speaker Gingrich was cleared of any wrongdoing by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee, the IRS and a federal judge." [1]


Speakership

  • All ten items in the Contract With America were brought to a vote in the U.S. House in the first 100 days (the promise was to bring them to a vote). Nine of the ten items passed the House. The sole exception was term limits which received a plurality but required a two-thirds majority as a Constitutional Amendment.
  • Committee Chairmen were term-limited as was the Speakership.
  • The Legislative branch was cut including the Speaker's office. Also reduced were committee sizes. Unnecessary perks like the House barbershop, shoeshine and ice service were eliminated.
  • The Congress was forced to live under the same laws as the rest of the land - OSHA, disabilities, workplace laws, members, staff etc.
  • A big six accounting firm audited the U.S. House's finances for the first time in history.
  • The Budget was balanced for the first time in a generation. When Time Magazine named Gingrich their Man of the Year in 1995, they said that because of Newt a balanced budget was no longer a question of if, but when.
  • Tax rates were cut for the first time in 17 years. Included were a lowering of the capital gains tax rate, a $500 per child tax credit and new tax credits for tuition to college and voc-tech schools. The cap gains tax actually ended being scored as a revenue increase, a shift in tax policy debate due to Gingrich's success.
  • Military spending increased for the first time in over 10 years including funding for a national missile defense.
  • The line-item veto passed and was signed into law.
  • Six of the bills were signed into law by the President. (In 1996, President Clinton pointed to 13 separate reforms that were contained within the Contract with America at the Democratic National Convention.)[2]
  • More women were appointed to leadership positions in the House than anytime in history.
  • Increased funding for the Violence Against Women Act by 700%.
  • Megan's Law was passed. [3] [4]

[5]

Post Congressional Activities

  • Started the Center for Health Transformation, January 2003. [6]


Quotes

  • "There is no attack on American culture more deadly and more historically dishonest than the secular effort to drive God out of America's public life."
  • “All free people stand on Reagan's shoulders. His principled policies proved that free markets create wealth, that the rule of law sustains freedom, and that all people everywhere deserve the right to dream, to pursue their dreams, and to govern themselves.”
  • “The idea that a congressman would be tainted by accepting money from private industry or private sources is essentially a socialist argument.”
  • If Thomas Edison invented electric light today, Dan Rather would report it on CBS News as "candle making industry threatened".”
  • “Perseverance is the hard work you do after you get tired of doing the hard work you already did.”[7]
  • “It is impossible to maintain civilization with 12-year-olds having babies, with 15-year-olds killing each other, with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS and with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can't read”


Writings

As an author, Gingrich has published nine books including the best sellers, Contract with America and To Renew America and his most recent book, Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America. In June 2005, Never Call Retreat concluded Newt's series of active history studies in the lessons of warfare based on a fictional account of the Battle of Gettysburg and its aftermath. And in Saving Lives & Saving Money, Gingrich demonstrates how to transform health and healthcare into a 21st century system.[8]

Personal Life

Newt Gingrich has publicly admitted to having been engaged in an extra-marital sexual relationship during the period he was pushing for Clinton's impeachment. ""The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2012 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards." Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity. "The President of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials." [9]

Newt and Callista
  • In 1962, Gingrich married Jackie Battley. They had two daughters together. Gingrich divorced Jackie Battley in 1980.
  • Gingrich married Marianne Ginther in late 1981. Gingrich divorced his second wife, Marianne, in 2000 after his attorneys acknowledged Gingrich's relationship with his current wife, Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide.
  • By August 2000, Gingrich married Bisek.
  • The Gingrich family includes two daughters, two sons-in-law, and two grandchildren.


External links

References

  1. Rick Tyler, Communications Director, Gingrich Communications; Salon.com
  2. [1]
  3. [2]
  4. [http://www.klaaskids.org/pg-legmeg.htm
  5. [3]
  6. Center for Health Transformation, History
  7. [4]
  8. [5][6]
  9. [7]