Gingrich chides House GOP in spending fight: Be willing to 'take risks'

Although I don't think that Newt is the best GOP candidate, he is right on on this one!-SP


At The Hill:

Newt Gingrich questioned House GOP leaders' approach to the spending fight in Congress Tuesday evening, arguing that they should push harder for deeper spending cuts.

Gingrich, the former Speaker of the House in the 1990s, said that House Republicans hadn't failed, but publicly pushed them to do more to rein in spending. 

"They’re not failing, but I think they need to recognize that the country wants them to be more willing to take risks, and more willing to push change," Gingrich said on conservative talker Hugh Hewitt's radio show. 

House Republicans have cut $10 billion in federal spending over the past five weeks through a series of short-term spending measures. They wish to ax another $51 billion from the budget the rest of this fiscal year, and cut additional spending in next year's budget. 

But those cuts haven't satisfied many of the most conservative members of the GOP, including a number of lawmakers who defected in last week's vote on a three-week continuing resolution. Those conservatives, often allied with the Tea Party movement, have called for heftier cuts and urged leadership to gird for a shutdown if necessary. 

Those House leaders are now feeling the pressure from some Republicans who would hope to be the party's standard-bearer in the 2012 election.

Former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said earlier this month that the budget needs "much greater cuts" than what's been proposed by House Republicans. 

Others, like former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty, have urged House Republicans to consider forcing a government shutdown — which would occur if lawmakers cannot reach a spending agreement by April 8 — if they can't reach a satisfactory agreement with President Obama on spending.

"I don’t understand the fear that’s involved," Gingrich said of House Republican leaders' insistence that they're uninterested in a government shutdown. 

Gingrich led House Republicans to a shutdown in 1995, which has traditionally been considered to have cost the GOP in the 1996 elections. 

"I wonder, when people say to me boy, that was really politically expensive, my question is to who? Our base wanted somebody who was serious, and this is part of what’s going on in the country right now," Gingrich said. "People are serious about controlling spending. They are serious about repealing Obamacare. They are serious about returning power to the states through the 10th Amendment."