*FACT CHECK: Gingrich Sketches a Too-Rosy Past*
http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=13591617
Republican presidential aspirant Newt Gingrich is hitching his star to
the era of economic growth in the 1990s when he was House speaker,
declaring "We've done it before. We can do it again." But his account of
what he did before is inflated.
The economy wasn't as rosy during his time in leadership as he's
claiming --- his numbers are off. And he appears to be taking all the
credit for actions that were at least as much the doing of the
Democratic president, Bill Clinton, as they were his own.
A look at some of Gingrich's statements about the past and the present,
made in his presidential campaign announcement video this week and
subsequent Fox TV interview, and how they compare with the facts.
GINGRICH:
---"And for four years, we balanced the budget and paid off $405 billion
in debt. We've done it before. We can do it again." --- Presidential
campaign announcement.
---"This country has an enormous potential ... to balance the budget as
we did for four years when I was speaker." --- Fox.
---"We then balanced it (the budget) for four consecutive years." --- Fox.
THE FACTS: First, the national debt went up, not down, during the four
years Gingrich was speaker. In January 1995, when he assumed the
leadership position, the gross national debt was $4.8 trillion. When he
left four years later, it was $5.6 trillion, an increase of $800 billion.
As for annual deficits, he did not preside over a four-year period of
balanced budgets. In the 1996 and 1997 budget years --- the first two
budget years he influenced as speaker --- the government ran deficits.
In 1998 and 1999, the government ran surpluses.
Washington achieved surpluses for two years after that, making for four
consecutive years of black ink. But Gingrich only had a hand in the
first two.
------------
GINGRICH: "As speaker of the House, I worked to reform welfare, to
balance the budget, to control spending, to cut taxes, to create
economic growth. Unemployment came down from 5.6 percent to under four."
--- Campaign video.
THE FACTS: When Gingrich became speaker in January 1995, the U.S.
unemployment rate was 5.7 percent. When his tenure ended four years
later, the rate was 4.3 percent. It didn't decline to 4 percent until a
year later, in January 2000.
---------
GINGRICH:
---"If you really are serious about balancing the budget, you can do it.
We did it.... Nobody thought we could do it when it started. We did it."
--- Fox.
---"We undertook welfare reform. We brought in all the governors and we
had a tremendous team effort." --- Fox.
THE FACTS: The unacknowledged partner in Gingrich's "we" is Clinton, who
drove for a welfare overhaul as a defining element of his presidential
campaign and claims budget surpluses as part of his legacy, too.
Gingrich's account of fiscal reformation does not mention that he cut a
deal with Clinton forcing Republicans to swallow a major new
entitlement, the largest expansion of taxpayer-financed health insurance
coverage for children since Medicaid began in the 1960s.
---------
GINGRICH: President Barack Obama, "telling the Brazilians they should
drill while we don't drill, is the wrong outcome.... He thinks we want
Brazilian energy." --- Fox.
THE FACTS: Obama didn't tell Brazilians to drill and Americans not to.
Brazil recently discovered huge oil reserves off its coast and the
president said the U.S. will want to be a "major customer" of those
supplies. Despite new curbs on offshore exploration after last spring's
disastrous BP oil spill, U.S. oil production rose to a seven-year high
last year.
---------
GINGRICH: "When the president spoke from the National Defense University
about Libya, he cited the U.N. and the Arab League eight times, and the
U.S. Congress once."
THE FACTS: The tally should be no surprise because the speech was about
the multinational campaign in Libya. But Gingrich was playing on claims
by some conservatives that Obama is servile to foreign interests and not
a tough enough practitioner of American unilateralism.
Missing in Gingrich's remark, though, was any acknowledgment that he,
too, had endorsed action by Libya's Arab neighbors, and that his overall
position on Libya had flipped.
Gingrich had initially criticized Obama for not intervening in Libya,
then did an about-face two weeks later, after the president had sent in
U.S. war planes to support the rebels fighting the government. "I would
not have intervened," he said in revising his position. "I think there
are a lot of other allies in the region that we could have worked with.
I would not have used American and European forces."
---------
GINGRICH: "I worked with President Ronald Reagan in a very difficult
period. We got jobs created again, Americans proud of America, and the
Soviet Union disappeared. As speaker of the house, I worked to reform
welfare..." --- Campaign video.
THE FACTS: Most Republican presidential candidates --- and some
Democrats --- associate themselves with Reagan as much as they can, and
Gingrich certainly served in the House during the Reagan years. But in
compressing his biography, Gingrich may have left the impression with
those unfamiliar with presidential history that he was speaker during
Reagan's presidency. The only president Gingrich worked with as speaker
was Clinton. Gingrich's first Republican leadership position, as
minority whip, began when Reagan left office, in 1989.
---------
Associated Press writers Jim Drinkard and Jim Kuhnhenn contributed to
this report.
--
Freedom is always illegal!
When we ask for freedom, we have already failed. It is only when we
declare freedom for ourselves and refuse to accept any less, that we
have any possibility of being free.
"The great object is that every man be armed; everyone who is able may
have a gun."
- Patrick Henry
--
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