Word: gingriched
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...disputes that America is caught in a thicket of problems. And no one disputes that many of the solutions of the past have done little to solve them. But if we leap into Newt Gingrich's Conservative Opportunity Society, will we, collectively, be better off? Conservatives of various stripes and hues have opposed activist, progressive government for generations. Indeed, the minimalist and maximalist approaches even divided the Founding Fathers. Will less government, as envisioned by Gingrich, then mean more prosperity and well-being for all Americans...
...Gingrich vision of a brighter future is worth the risk of a radically new direction in American governance, then his call for shared sacrifice is justified. For Newt Gingrich to build something lasting from his pastiche of ideas, the majority of the country must buy in. His vision must offer something better for most people, not just the 40% of the electorate who identify themselves as Republicans. Therefore, it is important to look not only at Gingrich's words. What has he wrought? What does his record portend...
Thus far, Gingrich and his hard-core freshman revolutionaries have failed to persuade working majorities in the Congress to buy more than a few items in the Contract. But they have made a start on the central question of slowing the growth of government. Still, the Republican budget doesn't really cut the size of the government as it exists today. It only reduces the share of gross domestic product that government would have taken if existing spending patterns had gone unchanged. The Republican proposal does promise a balanced budget in 2002, a signal accomplishment. Most important, the argument...
Meanwhile, the G.O.P. has left untouched the generous benefits that favor the rich, like home-mortgage deductions for mansions and second homes. Corporate giveaways in the form of specialized tax breaks and farm subsidies to agribusiness remain in place. Defense contracts of questionable utility are protected. When Gingrich ran into heavy lobbying from doctors on Medicare reform, he gave them almost everything they wanted...
...defang government, Gingrich would defund it. He and his party are insisting on $245 billion in tax cuts as a centerpiece of their effort. But is this great tax reduction flowing back into the pockets of all Americans? No. The tax reductions were, in part, a sop to the G.O.P. moralists who bemoan the dissolution of the family. The "family" tax cuts were aimed at people raising children, but not at all people raising children. The credits are worthless to the families in which a third of American children live, because those families don't earn enough to pay income...