(Video) Newt discussing Strong America Now in Ames

(Just as a note on Tuesday night's debate: It's on Bloomberg TV, so if you are like most (including me) who do not get that channel, you can stream it live on bloomberg.com at 8 PM ET.)

Link. (It runs 2 minutes, 58 seconds, so take a quick look please.)

Newt sent an open letter to CBO Director on federal government waste

Read the full letter on Newt.org here.

From the letter:

As someone who led an effort which reformed government and led to four consecutive balanced budgets - paying off over $400 billion in federal debt - I was astounded by the news reports of your testimony.

According to the reports you suggested that efforts to eliminate waste and fraud would produce "a negligible impact."

...

Your statement is the management equivalent of ruling out air travel in calculating how long it takes to go from New York to California.

There are three expert estimates of potential waste and fraud savings in the federal government that propose "$100 billion a year", "$70 to $120 billion a year" and "$500 billion a year" as reasonable estimates of potential waste and fraud savings in the federal government.

...

How can you dismiss this widespread, independent analysis that suggests between $625 billion and $2.5 trillion in savings over five years is possible through profound management reforms?

In every one of these areas there are private sector examples of real life success.

What is the CBO explanation for rejecting the real world in favor of defending existing Washington inefficiency, incompetence, waste, and fraud?

Peter Ferrara: "Redeeming Newt"

From his article in The American Spectator:

Newt Gingrich is so right in urging his own "Leadership Now" theme for the Republican House majority. He argues that the House should not wait for the debt reduction Super Committee before passing legislation to address federal spending, the deficit, economic growth, and jobs. The House should show leadership now by passing legislation that will achieve these goals most effectively, demonstrating to the public what conservative Republican victories in the elections next year would accomplish.

On block-granting Medicaid:

Gingrich raises a popular entitlement reform opportunity based on the enormously successful 1996 reforms of the old Aid to Families with Dependent Children program (AFDC), enacted while Gingrich was Speaker of the House.

Those reforms sent the federal financing for the program back to the states in fixed, finite block grants, with states empowered to redesign new welfare programs for the poor -- based on work. If a state's program cost more than its federal allotment, then it had to pay all of the extra costs itself. If its program cost lest, then it could keep the resulting savings.

With new incentives for the states, two-thirds of those on AFDC left the program for real private sector jobs. Their incomes rose by at least one fourth as a result, leading them out of poverty. And costs for the taxpayers dropped by half or more in real dollars compared to prior trends.

Those same reforms can and should be extended to Medicaid and all other federal means-tested welfare programs. Those programs are estimated to cost $10 trillion in total government spending over the next 10 years. The Republican House should act now to pass legislation effectively sending all those programs back to the states with block grants providing the discretion for the states to each enact a completely new welfare system based on work, as Gingrich suggested. That kind of Tea Party federalism would be enormously popular, as would the potential savings of $5 trillion over 10 years. Based on the 1996 reforms of AFDC, the poor would benefit enormously as well.

On energy and federal land:

Gingrich also proposes legislation to increase revenue from oil and gas exploration and drilling through sharply increased federal leases and permits. That could raise $150 billion over roughly 10 years, with more coming from increased economic growth due to more abundant supplies of low cost energy for businesses. Gingrich also proposes to sell federally owned land and other unused and environmentally insignificant federal assets.

Lean Six Sigma:

Gingrich is also pioneering the application of proven business efficiency and waste cutting methodologies known as Lean Six Sigma to government programs and agencies. Instead of waiting for the dangerously centralized Super Committee to develop plans for remaking the entire federal government, Gingrich argues that all 435 members of the House in almost 200 committees and subcommittees should be involved in developing ways to apply Lean Six Sigma business principles to government management, with potential cost savings of over $5 trillion. Gingrich argues that another $700 billion to $1.2 trillion over 10 years could be realized by applying the fraud detection techniques utilized by credit card companies to root out fraud in Medicare and Medicaid.

Ferrara concludes:

If the Republican House can act expeditiously to pass all of these ideas, and send them on to the do-nothing Democrat Senate, then Republicans can take these issues to the people next year, clearly defined.

And they can thank Newt Gingrich​ for many of them.

I have wrote about Ferrara's praise for Newt's ideas here and here.

(Video) Newt in New Hampshire touring a factory, discussing Lean Six Sigma

Link.

Article about Newt's New Hampshire Visit

From the Manchester Union-Leader:

Republican Presidential Primary candidate Newt Gingrich brought his message of reinventing government to Freudenberg-NOK’s Manchester Seal Technologies factory Thursday.

“We need a 21st century Food and Drug Administration that is designed to be in the laboratory, learning the science and accelerating moving science to the marketplace.

“Health will be the biggest job sector in the world and if the U.S. is the leading producer of new medicines, new breakthroughs, new technologies those jobs will be here, it will be just like this plant,” he said.

Freudenberg-NOK managers held an hour-long discussion with Gingrich of their lean manufacturing and Six Sigma achievements.

...

Gingrich said that by one estimate applying lean Six Sigma to the federal bureaucracy could save taxpayers $500 billion a year.

Gingrich advocated freezing current tax rates; going to a zero capital gains tax rate; going to a 100 percent tax deduction for new equipment; reduce corporate taxes rates from a top 35 percent to 12.5 percent; abolish the death tax on family-owned businesses.

“Congress frankly the first week of September ought to repeal the Dodd-Frank Bill,” he said. He also urged repeal of the Sarbannes-Oxley bill.

The Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies business has $60 million to $80 million a year in revenues from New Hampshire operations, with 250 employees in Manchester.

Newt's newsletter: "The Super Committee Disaster"

From this week's newsletter:

Nothing illustrates the gap between Washington and America better than the difference in reaction to the "Super Committee" that the debt ceiling deal set up to cut spending.

In Washington, a 12-member group with tremendous power to dictate the details of debt reduction is seen as a great idea.

Outside Washington, people applaud every time I condemn the process.

The rest of America sees a plan to skip 523 members of Congress while focusing power on a select 12 as a dangerous centralization of authority.

People instinctively understand that their Senators and Congressman will be on the outside lobbying the "powerful 12."

Ninety-seven percent of the American people have now lost representation in critical decisions about the size and scope of their government.

The rest of America also intuitively understands the absurdity of reducing the 217 committees and subcommittees that normally contribute to policy decisions in the House and Senate to one "super" committee for the whole Congress.

The group Strong America Now estimates that Congress could save $500 billion per year simply by modernizing the federal government's management system. They argue that the Lean Six Sigma technique for dramatic cost reductions could identify billions in savings with a careful examination of processes and expenditures across the government.

If that sounds implausible, consider that the Defense Department has already used Lean Six Sigma to save more than $22 billion, increasing productivity 1,000 percent in some facilities.

The Strong America Now estimate is more than three times the goal of the Super Committee. You can learn more about anti-waste budgeting and Lean Six Sigma in my newsletter here and at StrongAmericaNow.com.

For a full overview of my case against the Super Committee and an alternative method to balance the budget in a publicly accountable way, you should watch the speech I gave last Tuesday at the Heritage Foundation.

I think you will agree that targeted savings with full representation for all Americans is a better solution than unaccountability and concentrated power.

Let me know: Would you prefer the 12-member Super Committee or the involvement of all 535 members of Congress?

Click here to vote.

Newt to tour New Hampshire facility that uses Lean Six Sigma

On Thursday, Aug. 25, Newt Gingrich will visit the Manchester, New Hampshire production facility of Freudenberg-NOK Sealing Technologies to observe how the company uses Lean/ Six Sigma processes in its manufacturing and business processes to improve quality, reduce waste and gain operational efficiencies. Gingrich is advocating Lean/ Six Sigma be applied to the federal bureaucracy to save taxpayers money and eliminate unnecessary waste and abuse.

...

Freudenberg-NOK is a leading producer of advanced sealing and elastomeric technologies for a variety of industries including automotive, aerospace, appliance, diesel engine, agriculture, construction, heavy industry, and alternate energy.

What are Newt supporters saying?

Here is a great article by Justin Gray (here is his Twitter account).

Please read the whole thing, but here is his conclusion:

In the final analysis, it is imperative for the GOP Presidential Nominee to be a solid Conservative who can win the general election and successfully return America to the Constitutional Republic our Founding Fathers envisioned. To unravel the top-down, authoritarian, freedom strangling policies the hard Left has implemented. The importance of the 2012 election cannot be overstated nor who we choose as our Republican nominee. Newt Gingrich is the Great Debater and master tactician with a solid record of Conservative achievement who has been thoroughly vetted on a national level. For these reasons and many more I hope you will join me by rallying around Newt Gingrich in the primary process and ultimately as the next President of the United States.

I received this e-mail earlier today from Will Wade (here he is on Twitter):

While listening to the intelligent and meaningful discussion from the callers and Newt Gingrich regarding Lean Six Sigma and the need for its implementation to make our Government efficient and cost effective, I have this thought that could be the "battle cry" to all American's - 'Necessity is the mother of invention.' The time is now in our nation’s history to act. We can no longer just know that we need to make this correction we must DO this corrective action! We must demand our representatives make this change and start the process 9/1/2011. I am no expert on this process but I am willing to be a part of this solution. Furthermore, many companies are making this change (to some degree) to survive and families are even making these changes to survive out of necessity.

In the structure of our government we have the problem of there being the spirit and mentality that "it is everyone's job, then it becomes nobody's job". We need clear vision and as one caller said- "this needs to come from the top!"

I am with Newt on this and I believe that you should be with him too!

Ready and willing to act,

Will Wade
Dawsonville, GA USA

Take one minute and watch this video of Newt on Lean Six Sigma

Link. (Thank you to TexasGOPVote for the video from the Iowa Straw Poll Presidential Kick-Off Breakfast.)

Recap of the Newt 2012 conference call tonight on Lean Six Sigma

Tonight, Newt held a conference call with those in the Lean Six Sigma (LSS) field and those interested in it. The last number I heard was about 800 people had RSVP'd, but that may have grown in the last day or two. (And others may have called in without signing up.)

(Also: there were a number of people who wanted to be on the call but who could not, so the campaign recorded the call and will have it up online at some point.)

The call opened with Newt's Coalitions Director, Adam Waldeck, saying that since Newt's mention of LSS during the Ames Debate and other public appearances, there has been an "outpouring" of people wanting to get involved.

Newt got on the call then and said this has a chance to be one of those moments that leads to very big change. (And the right change.)

He gave some background of his experience in "lean" thinking. To anyone who has read Newt for years or listened to the audio tapes Renewing American Civilization, you have heard him mention the name W. Edwards Deming. And even though he was not a "lean" thinker per se, the ideas he taught are reflected in those advocating Lean Six Sigma today. Newt said he took a sixty hour tutorial of Deming's and invited him to the Capitol to introduce him to some of the Congressional members.

All of which shows that Newt did not just discover this issue conveniently at election time. (If you did not see this the other day, here is Newt talking about how to use "lean" ideas back in 2009.)

There's more to than this, but some of the important pricniples of Lean is to be looking continuously improve and to be flexible (including being able to pay according to achievement.) All of which, Newt said, are either not allowed or discouraged under the current bureaucratic system.

Newt seemed to be setting up a huge debate over "big, big changes" in the coming months over how to "modernize government now." The fight will have to upend the civil service system, the bureaucracies, and the regulatory apparatus. Every committee and subcommittee in Congress should be looking at Lean Six Sigma, Newt repeated.

Next week, helping to launch that big fight, Newt will hold a strategy session with Lean Six Sigma experts and practitioners on Wednesday, followed by a townhall on the subject in Hew Hampshire the next day. Townhalls, Newt said, are helpful because, besides the obvious benefit of talking to citizens, the media will typically cover them and maybe will actually talk about an issue.

Declaring that LSS is "not a theory, not an abstract" but something that works incredibly well, Newt suggested that everyone help in spreading the message. One of his ideas to do that was to show elected officials and the media around to factories and other sites at which the process is being used.

Echoing Margaret Thatcher's line that "first you win the argument, then you win the vote" -- which Newt loves to quote -- he said that in order to implement LSS, we will have to first educate people why we need to do it, then win the fight, then finally have an action plan to get it set up. "Lots and lots of help" will be needed, Newt added, with many volunteers helping all throughout the process.

A "[f]undamental cultural revolution that will shake Washington to its' core" is the way Newt described it. The bureaucracies and the old order "will bitterly resent and fight this fundamental change." That is why Newt repeated his wish that people not be for him but with him. People cannot just elect me and then do nothing, saying "I hope he changes it," Newt said. Every day, Congress will need reminding what they need to do to turn this country around. "Eight hard years" is how Newt described what his Presidency will be. (What a great thought, though, huh?)

Along those same lines, Newt said that when the 10th Amendment is re-asserted that citizens will need to make sure their states and cities do not just end up being mini versions of the current mess in Washington, D.C. "Smaller Government, Big Citizens" is the name of Newt's Team 10 Facebook Page. Please click on the link and add your name to the group.

To sum it up:

A woman from Charleston, South Carolina, was very enthusiastic about not just the LSS issue but Newt's campaign in general. Toward the end of her call she said there was a "lot of positive energy" in Charleston about Newt, to which Newt replied, "We'll be back."

"You're on the right track," she replied.

Indeed he is.

#withNewt

Newt praised as a "Lean Champion" by LeanBlog's Mark Graban

Though some had not heard of the term until Newt started mentioning it in his Presidential campaign, the concept of "lean" thinking, as exemplified by Lean Six Sigma, has long been advocated by Newt.

Yesterday, Mark Graban (follow him on Twitter here) posted the link to a story he wrote about Newt back in December 2009 after meeting Newt at the Ontario Hospital Association.

He posted the link in a discussion of Newt's conference call Wednesday about Lean Six Sigma. Newt.org reads: "If you work in the Six Sigma field, please join Newt for a conference call so he can listen and learn from you, get your feedback and ideas, and answer your questions - so together we can shrink and reform government to get back to a balanced budget."

I recommend reading the entire post -- there is also a few minutes of audio -- but here are some excerpts:

I had a huge thrill a few weeks back, seeing former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich give a talk at the Ontario Hospital Association annual event in Toronto. I had a chance to meet him briefly and had a quick exchange about lean in healthcare, something for which Newt has long been a loud proponent. He seemed genuinely interested when he asked about my talk the day before about lean.

Newt, being a historian (that’s his PhD), gave an amazingly detailed history of Dr. Deming’s influence on Toyota and the impact of lean on the auto industry.

After quoting Newt as saying "Cost control is a bureaucratic term that never works," Graban writes:

Ironically, focusing on costs often leads costs to go up. Improving processes and improving quality inevitably leads to true cost reduction. Newt understands that and we need his voice and those ideas in the healthcare debate.

It is too long to post the entire section, but what Newt and Graban had to say about the Wright Brothers' way of inventing the first airplane versus that of the federal government's both shows how more effective entrepreneurs are than bureaucrats and a little humorous.

Here is the link to the post again.

Here is a positive article today by Politico in which Lean Six Sigma, Dodd-Frank, and plenty of other of Newt's solutions are discussed. (It was written about Newt's speech today at The Heritage Foundation.)

Newt and Lean Six Sigma, with video and audio

I put together a page on Newt50States.com. (Please sign up under your state's page, by the way, if you haven't already.)

Lean Six Sigma will be a big issue going forward, and thought it would be helpful. I will keep adding onto it as needed.

LSS page.

What have people been Googling to find this blog?

Here are the top searches those who wind up on this site have punched into their search engine of choice were punching in Thursday going into Friday:

-- gingrich lean six sigma
-- newt gingrich lean six sigma
-- newt gingrich six sigma
-- lean six sigma gingrich
-- teamgingrich2012
-- gingrich debate 6 sigma
-- gingrich six sigma.

One of these things is not like the other.

For some background on Lean Six Sigma, here is a post I wrote about a month ago.

A Newt supporter tells his story of being in Marietta this past week

Bryan Jacoutot -- BJacoutot on Twitter -- wrote about his experience seeing Newt 2012 up close this last week. I will quote a few parts from his article, which can be found here. (The whole thing is worth reading.)

Gingrich and I agree almost exactly on how to address the issue of immigration reform in this country. I think that at this point, it should be abundantly clear that neither a policy of mass deportation, nor mass amnesty is any sort of real fix to the problem.

...

“I think it has to be taken one step at a time,” Gingrich said. “Today if you’re trying to be here legally and some of you have friends who have been through this, it takes longer and is more expensive and you have to have a lawyer to deal with the state department, so it’s actually cheaper to hire a coyote to sneak into the country than it is to pay your legal fees to get into the country legally. That’s really dumb.” He also advocated for an intermediate step to legality without citizenship for illegal residents who have been here for a number of years. He argued that this “legal status” would get them out of “the grey zone” but not allow them easier access to citizenship than someone who has been waiting patiently across the border to come here legally.

What went largely unnoticed by the onlookers in Marietta this past Thursday was Gingrich’s reference to the highly touted business technique known as Lean Sigma. Gingrich himself only briefly mentioned it as part of his plan to help reduce government waste but the term stuck out to me as a person who has heard his father mention it on a number of occasions at the dinner table in dealing with his business. In a White Paper released by the University at Buffalo Center for Industrial Effectiveness, Lean Sigma is outlined and its successful implementation by the government of Eerie County, New York is highlighted. In a nutshell, Lean Sigma focuses on using facts, data, and statistical analysis to observe trends in all sorts of aspects of our day to day life, aspects that can include the execution of government. With the implementation of a “Lean Sigma based mentality” to how we operate our federal government, the amount of taxpayer dollars that can be saved by preventing governmental waste would be astronomical. This, however, requires taking a business minded approach when dealing with the government, a blend that Gingirch is well suited for following his many successful business ventures since his time as Speaker of the House. A successful application of Lean Sigma to the federal government could earn savings that would considerably dwarf any of the potential plans that our law makers attempting to balance the budget currently have out.

Ultimately, this is where Newt Gingrich separates himself from every other candidate in the running for the office of the President. I’ve mentioned this in earlier posts but it continues to hold true. His speeches aren’t wasted on rhetoric or conjecture. Rather, in a short time, he communicates brilliant ideas, and more importantly, workable plans for those ideas that are backed up both by experiential and learned knowledge. In electing any other candidate, we take a chance because we have no way of knowing if their ideas and rhetoric are backed up by substantive plans for execution. If you ask Gingrich about a campaign issue, he doesn’t stop at telling you what the problem is, he follows up with six ways on how to go about fixing it.

Well, I tried to only quote some of it -- ended up quoting a lot because it really gets the point across. Here is the link for the full article again. And here his Twitter account once again.

Audio of Newt on Strong America Teleforum back on July 19

I wrote about the teleforum here the night it happened, and here is the audio link.

Newt's portion starts at the 22:25 mark.

Here is the video I linked to earlier this week:

Video of Newt talking about Lean Six Sigma

Link.

Newt on Strong America Now Teleforum

The Strong America Now conference call just ended. The group has about 50,000 members in Iowa, and that is where the call was based from tonight. (Its' presence in New Hampshire is also quite big.)

Newt called on those in the state with the first Presidential contest who support Lean Six Sigma (LSS) to "help make history" by pulling aside reporters and explaining it to them.

Newt, as he has been saying, believes LSS would make the FDA "dramatically" faster at getting breakthroughs to patients, lengthening lives and improving lives.

He mentioned the Boeing plant in Charleston as what can be produced with the newest technology and the focus being on efficiently delivering to consumers what they want and need.

Tim Pawlenty had a staffer call in. Herman Cain called in. No other Presidential candidate participated.

What is Lean Six Sigma? Why is Newt the only candidate to focus on it?

Six Sigma was first used at Motorola in the middle 1980s. It attempts to increase effectivenss and reduce cost -- essentially become more efficient -- by finding the causes of defects (often using statistical analysis) and trying to make sure that when the correct process is identified that it is replicated every time. The name, in fact, is a rating of the manufacturing process. To be "Six Sigma" means 99.99966% of the output is to be free of defects.

Lean Six Sigma combines the ideas of Six Sigma with those of lean manufacturing, which when boiled down basically attempts to eliminate any use of resources that in the end will not provide value to the customer.

Businesses have long used it to great effectiveness. But starting in 2000, when Fort Wayne, Indiana, adopted it, it has been shown to be the best way of making government more efficient. (Efficiency is the goal as it means effective and low cost; effectiveness on a huge budget is not the ideal.)

The military has used to trim waste while producing greater results for the troops and the country as a whole.

Here are some of the case studies as compiled by Strong America Now.

Strong America Now, headed by Michael George, is a grassroots organization -- with 50,000 members in Iowa alone -- whose main focus is on getting candidates for office to pledge to implement Lean Six Sigma. They believe that the federal government's budget could be trimmed by 25% just by using the practices entailed in it.

Newt was the first candidate for President to sign the group's pledge. (Which I wrote about here when he did so.) And he is the only one running for the White House who is making it a central part of their campaign.

(To anyone who is a supporter of Tim Pawlenty, Herman Cain, or Gary Johnson: Yes, I know all three have also signed the pledge, but that does not mean they are focusing on it. All it means is that they did the political equivalent of a New Year's Resolution -- and then forgot about it January 3rd.)

What is one reason I can say that with some confidence? Newt is the only 2012 candidate confirmed to be a part of the group's Teleforum tonight. (Update: Pawlenty had a staffer call and Cain himself called in.)

Here is the page to register so you can hear it. (Registration closes at 6:00 PM Central.)

I will be posting a recap of it later tonight.

(Update: Here is the post I wrote after the teleforum.)

(Second update: Here is the audio of the event. Newt's portion starts at 22:25.)

Gingrich Signs Cut, Cap and Balance Pledge

The entire press release:

Atlanta, GA – Newt Gingrich signed the Cut, Cap and Balance pledge today strengthening his over thirty year commitment to fiscal discipline.

“Balanced budgets are achieved by those who are committed,” said Gingrich, who passed the first balanced budget in a generation as U.S. House Speaker. “Fiscal discipline requires lawmakers to be smart not cheap and requires a different type of thinking than we see in Washington. I am proposing bold solutions because we have big problems. I pledge to be a President who will rein in deficits, the debt and out of control spending. It can be done, I know because we’ve done it before.”

The Cut, Cap and Balance pledge was a created by a coalition of over 40 conservative grassroots organizations who are calling on elected officials to support spending cuts and balancing the federal budget.

The pledge reads:

I pledge to urge my Senators and Member of the House of Representatives to oppose any debt limit increase unless all three of the following conditions have been met:

1. Cut -- Substantial cuts in spending that will reduce the deficit next year and thereafter.

2. Cap -- Enforceable spending caps that will put federal spending on a path to a balanced budget.

3. Balance -- Congressional passage of a Balanced Budget Amendment to the U.S. Constitution -- but only if it includes both a spending limitation and a super-majority for raising taxes, in addition to balancing revenues and expenses.

Gingrich was the first presidential candidate to propose a jobs plan which includes balancing the federal budget, bold tax cuts and development of an American energy plan. Combined with significant repeal of Obama era regulation the plan will eliminate the budget deficit and help pay down the national debt.

In June, Gingrich was the first presidential candidate to sign Save America Now’s pledge which calls on lawmakers to utilize the Lean Six Sigma fiscal waste reduction method developed by Reagan Administration official Mike George.

Learn more about Newt’s commitment to fiscal discipline at www.newt.org.

Newt will sign deficit reduction pledge tomorrow; Tea Party bus tour in Iowa later this month

-- Tomorrow, in New Hampshire, Gingrich will sign the Strong America Now deficit reduction pledge. The group -- "which claims 50,000 supporters in first caucus state Iowa, is promoting cutting the deficit by employing lean business practices known as the Lean Six Sigma strategy, which targets inefficiencies."

Tomorrow night, Newt and his wife, Callista, will be screening Nine Days that Changed the World, a film about Pope John Paul II's trip to Poland in 1979, in Plaistow. You can RSVP here.

-- It was announced today that Newt will be one of the Presidential candidates who will be riding on the Iowa Tea Party Bus Tour, which will run from June 13 through July 2.

"The purpose of the tour is to train grassroots activists in the state of Iowa to get them as prepared as they’re going on and best advocate for the candidate of their choice," ABC quotes Ryan Rhodes, the tour organizer, as saying.

Rhodes says only one candidate will be on tour at a time and they will not be releasing when the candidates will be appearing.

Here is the group's page on Newt. Once you register, you can vote for him in their straw poll.

-- I have changed the videos page of this site. Before, in order to allow the page to load faster, I simply posted links to various videos. Now, I have embedded a number of the videos at the top of the page. (I have shrunk the size of the video, which allows the page to load quite fast.)

If you have any comments -- about the change to the video page, any other proposed changes, or just any topic in general -- feel free to e-mail me at joshgosser1776@gmail.com.