ABC News points out that Newt was first to release jobs plan

When Tim Pawlenty released his jobs plan a couple of months ago, the media kept saying he was the first candidate to do so. And now Jon Huntsman has received the same treatment, with some claiming his was the first plan.

But Arlette Saenz of ABC News sets the record straight:

But there’s one jobs plan that hasn’t received much coverage this election cycle – the one released by Newt Gingrich back in May. The former speaker of the House, who announced his run for the presidency in May via Twitter, released his “Jobs and Prosperity Plan” just two days after announcing his candidacy.

Gingrich crafted an economic plan with the intent of instantly boosting new business investment in the United States. His plan proposes eliminating the capital gains tax, bringing the corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent, shifting to an optional 15 percent flat tax for all Americans, and abolishing the death tax on a permanent basis, all while reforming the FDA and EPA and repealing Sarbanes Oxley, Dodd-Frank and President Obama’s healthcare plan.

In his campaign, Gingrich has also emphasized the need to expand initiatives in developing American energy as a mechanism for creating new jobs.

These weren’t new ideas for Gingrich, who in 2009 released a jobs plan with similar goals -- shifting the corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent, ending the capital gains and death taxes, and calling for a balanced budget and an American energy plan. Gingrich also held a Real Jobs Summit in December 2009 at the same time President Obama held the White House Jobs Summit.

Saenz also had this quote from Newt's spokesman:

“The question isn’t what to do, it is, Who can do it? We need leadership now that can implement the right policies to put Americans back to work. Republicans should act now on several fronts and let the President explain why his policies create more food stamps than they do paychecks,” R.C. Hammond, spokesman for Gingrich, said.

Newt's action plan to get American jobs

In this week's newsletter, Newt discusses the awful job numbers that were released last Friday.

A net of just 18,000 jobs were created in June. That is one new job for every 1,000 unemployed Americans.
The government's report also revised its estimate of new jobs created in May by more than 50 percent, from 54,000 down to only 25,000.

Overall, the workforce declined by 272,000 people from May to June. America now has its lowest rate of participation in the workforce in 27 years.

Even with a smaller work force, the unemployment rate increased for the third straight month, to 9.2 percent.

That 9.2 percent, however, does not even capture the full severity of our unemployment situation. Adding together all those who are unemployed, underemployed, or have quit looking for work yields a number closer to 16.2 percent. That is one out of every six eligible Americans.

The number of Americans receiving food stamps is at an all-time high and is also approaching one out of every six Americans.

This week's numbers are one more sign that President Obama's job-killing policies are continuing to hamper the economy. Instead of seeing improvements, we could be seeing America plunge deeper into the Obama Depression.

Pushing back against the idea that the worst economic news is behind us, Newt writes:

President Obama declared the beginning of the “Recovery Summer” over a year ago. In spite of what the president and his advisors may believe, the recovery is far from certain and millions of Americans remain vulnerable to further decline. There are at least four possible circumstances that would put downward pressure on our fragile economy.

A Greek default could trigger a rolling bank crisis throughout Europe and thereby have significant effects on the American economy. Already, a rapid sell-off of Italian government bonds this week was blamed on worries over Greek debt.

Instability in the Middle East could lead to a spike in oil prices and a consequent deep contraction in the American and European economies.

Continuation of the Obama Administration's job-killing policies could send companies overseas and cause small businesses to stop hiring. In fact, a Chamber of Commerce study reported this week that roughly two thirds of small business executives said they would make no new hires this year, and another 12 percent said they would cut jobs.

People could simply run out of savings and find themselves cutting back on spending even more than they already have.

These are just four real possibilities among many others that could cause our weak economy to become worse. We must move to eliminate the artificial, political threats to jobs that leave America even more vulnerable to external shocks to the economy.

What should be done?

The Republican House should start repealing job-killing laws and programs and aggressively curtail job-killing bureaucracies.

Then the Democratic Senate would be on the spot. Does it favor big government and failed policies, or job creation?

The Democrats can be the party of bureaucracy and food stamps if they want to. Republicans are happy to be the party of jobs and paychecks. Friday's unemployment numbers are decisive proof that President Obama's big government, class warfare model leads to job killing and dependency.
Republicans must respond with a clear action plan to end the Obama Depression.

On the debt ceiling and spending:

A major mistake in the debt ceiling negotiations has been the narrow focus on spending cuts as if all spending is equal. It is not. Some spending goes to legitimate purposes and some goes to activities that kill jobs: national defense and defense of union interests are not equally worthy expenditure.
We should start in the debt ceiling bill by cutting the spending that goes directly to job killing activities.

That should include a drastic reduction in the authority of the National Labor Relations Board so that it cannot kill manufacturing jobs in South Carolina (see my recent newsletter here) or come between individuals and their employers in other right-to-work states.

It should include restrictions on the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to impose job-killing electricity rate increases -- which, amazingly, it was doing just as the unemployment numbers were announced on Friday.

It should include an end to absurd government restrictions on the development of American energy, including offshore oil and gas. While the Administration takes as long as possible to authorize offshore drilling permits, in many places gas prices are more than a dollar per gallon higher than they were one year ago.

Senate Democrats and President Obama seem willing to choose job-killing policies even at the cost of a debt ceiling deal. Republicans should illuminate that destructive choice.

Unemployment and debt are sobering, historic challenges. We must meet them.

Newt's new online video: Big Government Kills Jobs

Link.


Love the footage of him in Iowa on the Fourth.

Some of the highlights of Club for Growth's report on Newt

Club for Growth, whose negative White Paper on Mike Huckabee three years ago gave the former Arkansas Governor a lot of bad press, released their first paper this cycle today. Newt was the subject.

From the White Paper: "Gingrich can be one of the most clear-eyed and forceful advocates for supply-side economics and the value of free enterprise." They criticize him about his support of some tax credits, but as they note, there is not going to be any Presidential candidate -- especially a serious one -- who does not.

Club for Growth: "In a 2008 op-ed, he enthusiastically praised the idea of an optional, single-rate income tax reform proposal." The report does not say it, but last week Newt included an optional, 15% flat tax in his 9 point "Gingrich Jobs and Prosperity Plan."

The Club commends Newt on, among other things, free trade, wanting the repeal of Sarbanes-Oxley and many other burdensome regulations, personalizing Social Security, school choice, tort reform, and political free speech.

The report's summary states:

One could reasonably expect a President Gingrich to lead America in a pro-growth and limited government direction generally, possibly with flashes of real brilliance and accomplishment, but also likely with some serious disappointments and unevenness.

Of course, the same can be said of every political leader, even Ronald Reagan, who irked many conservatives over his two terms in office -- including a young Newt Gingrich.

No one is able to get 100% of the policies they want. Ronald Reagan's philosophy was to get 70% of what he wanted, then once people saw how well it worked, he would get the remaining 30%.