All sorts of problems with Newt Gingrich

Newt Gingrich is not the leader I want; he flip flops way too much. According to FactCheck.org, he has flipped flopped on such issues as Libya, cap and trade, Paul Ryan’s Medicare Plan, TARP (Troubled Assist Relief Plan), stem cell research and climate change. He has also partially flipped on illegal immigration and abortion.

He also exaggerates his work in Congress, saying, “I helped balance the federal budget for four straight years, the only time in your lifetime we had four years of a balanced budget. We paid over $400 billion in federal debt off.” Fact: The federal budget was indeed balanced for four straight years, from fiscal years 1998 to 2001. The only problem is that Gingrich left office in January 1999, so he was in Congress for only two of those four budget years (fiscal years 1998 and 1999), and the total surplus in those years was $194.9 billion — about half of what he claimed credit for.

And then there is his Freddie Mac involvement during the housing crisis: Gingrich’s consulting firm was paid between $25,000 to $30,000 a month, for a total of about $1.6 million to $1.8 million over several years, according to Bloomberg News. It is interesting to note that his company has changed names from the Gingrich Group to the Center for Health Transformation.

Ethically, there appear to be some problems as well: He was reprimanded by a Republican-controlled House in 1997 for submitting misleading statements to House investigators, who were looking into his alleged misuse of tax-exempt charities to advance his political agenda. The House voted 395 to 28 in favor of the punishment. It was the first time in the House’s 208-year history it had disciplined a speaker for ethical wrongdoing. He had to pay $300,000 to settle the charges against him.

CJ Truesdale

Wheaton