Video of Newt's speech to The Heritage Foundation today.

Link to video.



Newt, writes Heritage at the above link, "broke the problems down into three categories: constitutional, intellectual, and legislative issues."

If you are interested, here are transcripts of two of Newt's previous speeches at Heritage: Building the Conservative Movement after Ronald Reagan (1988) and The Washington Establishment vs. The American People: A Report from the Budget Summit (1990).

The latter of which, writes Lee Edwards of Heritage, "Gingrich quoted from Goldwater's Conscience of a Conservative, Reagan's 1964 television address for Goldwater, Bill Buckley's National Review, and two articles by Irving Kristol in the Wall Street Journal."

(An apology to subscribers of this blog: I wrote a post that said Newt was to speak at Heritage today, but when I went to make a change, did not it "publish post" again. So it did not show up in the daily e-mail this morning.)

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 will speak in front of the Heritage Foundation Tuesday

The speech, at 9 AM ET, will be titled "Stop the Super Committee Now: Restore Consent of the Governed." It is scheduled to be shown live on C-SPAN2 and on CSPAN.org. (Update: A comment left by a reader points out that Heritage.org will stream it live.)

Here is the press release from the campaign.

The video of Newt calling it a "dumb idea" during the recent Ames debate.

Examining Bob McDonnell's claim that Newt is "most important Republican" besides Reagan in last 50 years (hint: he's right).

Virginia Governor and possible 2012 Vice Presidential pick Bob McDonnell had this exchange the other day:

New York Times: Other than Reagan, the most significant Republican in the last half-century.

McDonnell: Newt Gingrich. That Contract with America really changed the way Republicans approached government -- positive, problem solving, solutions and then getting things done.

I think that was a phenomenal turnaround.

Of course, McDonnell is not alone in that view. Lee Edwards -- who worked on Barry Goldwater's campaign, has been a long-time scholar at the Heritage Foundation, and is perhaps the preeminent historian of the conservative movement -- also says that.

The Republicans have had other Presidents in that time span -- Richard Nixon, Gerald Ford, George H.W. Bush, and George W. Bush -- but none led to as many conservative policy victories as Newt nor did they help bring a political realignment along.

He set out when he was first elected to Congress in 1979 to help bring down the Democrat House majority that had become entrenched and corrupt. Edwards recalls that Newt was all but called insane for arguing Republicans could capture the House. Having done what many thought impossible, Newt followed that up with balancing the budget four years in a row -- while enacting tax cuts and rebuilding our military at the same time -- and reforming welfare.

While being the most influential Republican besides Ronald Reagan in the last half century is not reason alone to be the next GOP Presidential nominee, it is also not to be diminished. Roll Call put it this way:

In noting Gingrich’s accomplishments as a Member, [Gingrich spokesman] Tyler telegraphed what could be a campaign messaging strategy to contrast the former Speaker’s record of concrete achievement at the federal level versus his opponents’ 'rhetoric' of as-yet-unfulfilled promises.

Every Republican running for the White House will talk of balancing the federal budget but only one actually has. And if Newt reminds people of his accomplishments -- almost half of the electorate, either due to being too young in the 90s or other reasons, is not even aware Newt was Speaker -- he will get a chance to balance it again. This time at the other end of Pennsylvania Avenue.

Heritage Foundation: Gingrich Calls for New Conservative Revolution (with video)

The Heritage Foundation sent out this e-mail today:

The keynote speaker at Heritage's annual President’s Club dinner in Washington, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, did not disappoint.

Gingrich outlined his plan for a new conservative revolution, suggesting 2021 as a date by which America will be re-oriented towards conservative principles. And, the former Georgia Congressman added, “there is no better place than The Heritage Foundation to create a new outline of the conservative movement.”

Speaking to the unique nature of power, Gingrich explored the differences between how liberals and conservatives view the source of power. In the conservative view -- the view of the Founders, the view that makes America exceptional -- ”power comes from G-d to each one of you personally. You loan power to the state. The state never loans power to you.”

Gingrich explained a plan to teach American exceptionalism to future generations. He demanded that “every student in a school: elementary, high school, and college, if funded by tax dollars, should encounter the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.”

Addressing the controversy over TSA screenings, Gingrich said what should be obvious: “We have to tell the truth about who is trying to kill us and act on that truth...Checking out an 83-year-old nun from Des Moines is not national security. It’s stupidity.”

To watch Gingrich's full remarks, go to myHeritage.org.

Chicago Tribune writer tries to argue Gingrich was for individual mandate

In an attempt to help sell Obamacare, liberals have tried to tie Republicans and conservatives in with some of the aspects of the legislation. In some instances, such as with former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney, they are correct. But their other attempts have fallen flat.

Recently, President Obama claimed that the premier conservative think tank, The Heritage Foundation, favored the exchanges set up in his health care bill. Heritage immediately came out to refute the claim -- as they had to do in 2008, when candidate Obama said the group favored his tax plan over John McCain's and as they have to do in the previous weeks over claims they support the White House's financial reform package.

In another example of liberal fibbing, Media Matters first "reported" -- and then numerous of lazy reporters parroted, including one from The Chicago Tribune -- that Newt Gingrich supported the individual mandate a few years ago. While Newt talked about the idea of forcing people to put up a bond equal to a health insurance policy -- to drastically reduce the number of free loaders -- he did not support the idea of forcing citizens to buy a private product in order to be in good standing.

A notable difference is that the money remains the individual's unless they need medical care. If they do not need it, it is still in their possession. It serves the purpose the mandate does while maintaining more liberty and not violating that pesky Constitution.