Gingrich: "A Crisis Of Competency"

National Review Online: Former House Speaker Calls For Greater Government Efficiency

(National Review Online)  This column was written by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich.

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"We don’t have problems, just solutions."

This was the motto of Rear Admiral Eugene Fluckey, the man responsible for destroying more tonnage of Japanese shipping than any other submarine commander during World War II. I can’t think of a phrase that better explains the can-do spirit of America, the attitude that propelled our country to be the powerful and wealthy country in history.

Americans still clearly possess this same can-do spirit. More small businesses and scientific breakthroughs are produced in America than anywhere else in the world. However, there is a growing gap between the world that works - the innovation and efficiency that (with some notable exceptions) we see in the private sector - and the world that fails — the exponentially expanding parade of waste and incompetence with which we suffer from our government bureaucracies.

This massive gap in performance didn’t always exist and it need not exist to such an absurd degree.

The transcontinental railroad was completed in six years. Today, it takes twenty-three years to add a runway to the Atlanta airport.

Chicago, San Francisco, and Galveston were rapidly rebuilt largely with private money after turn of the century disasters devastated the cities. Today, much of New Orleans looks not altogether different than it did immediately after the flood waters receded despite billions of taxpayer dollars spent.

The 1.1. mile Zion-Mt. Carmel Tunnel in Zion National Park was completed in less than three years. The so-called “Big Dig” in Boston took so long that soon after it was completed, it already needed repairs.

The Manhattan Project took two years, eleven months and three days. Neil Armstrong took the first steps onto the lunar surface a mere six years, ten months, and eight days after President Kennedy vowed to put a man on the moon. There is currently no comparable effort to achieve energy independence and NASA has just announced a thirty year plan to get to Mars.

More disturbingly, it took America less than five years after Pearl Harbor to mobilize, build the largest Navy the world have ever seen, and then fight and defeat our enemies. We are now approaching the six year anniversary of 9/11 and still struggling as a nation not only to define a strategy for victory, but to define who it is we are fighting.

It is clear that the machinery of government is broken. It’s been so corroded by red tape and the bureaucratic self-preservation of members of permanent government that we are reaching a crisis of competency in our government’s capacity to execute its core functions.

This is a serious threat to America’s position as the most powerful country in the world. As a conservative, I am dubious of government’s attempts to do what should be left to the private sector. However, I am adamant that in the areas government is involved, we should insist on the same performance standard we expect in everyday life.

This standard is simple: more choices of higher quality at lower cost with greater convenience.

We must bring the principles that have built America and made it great — hard work, entrepreneurialism, innovation, and optimism — to our greatest national challenges: a national security system that doesn’t fail our fighting men and women; an immigration system that enforces the law now; a “green conservative” energy security policy; schools that prepare children for success, not prison; and a healthcare system focused on patients, not process.

On Monday, July 23, at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce in Washington, D.C., I will outline a core set of principles and metrics to begin the migration of government from the world that fails to the world that works. The presentation will be webcast live on www.americansolutions.com starting at noon, ET. In keeping with Admiral Eugene Fluckey’s quintessentially American motto, I hope you’ll join me so that we may together develop American solutions to problems facing America.

[danalighieri-2009]

When since 1932 could someone not have stated that entrenched bureacracy and red tape were a increasing? It is a safe truism. The question is - 'what is to be done about it?' As with the Supreme Court, the Souters and Kennedys and etc., when people become part of a system, their philosophies change to support expansion of that system's power and influence. All bureacrats, whether appointed by Democrats or Republicans become exponents of expanding bureacratic power - well-paid, well-eduated, well-informed, politically savvy and fighting for their livelihood. What institutional change can Gingrich suggest, beyond decrying the inevitable?

[standlee5]

Gingrich makes a great point. We HAVE to get govt. working again. It's stagnant and tied up in bureaucratic gridlock. If we don't we'll lose our country forever to corporations. This should be a bi-partisan effort led by the Republicans (the good ones) for they're better suited at slashing big govt. just as Democrats are better at facilitating social programs. Let the two parties do their best work for a better America.

[j-whitman]

When Gingrich talks of more innovation and efficiency in government --- He means more outsourcing of government services & assets to foreign countries.

[adian1-2009]

Yeah! Yeah! What we need is a Gingrich, especially after a Bush/Cheney! I would like to congratulate Liberty University. They made a great choice when they invited Ginrich. An example of honesty (judging Clinton on *** while at the same time he kept his closet closed). An example of morality. An example of ethics. God, how bad that I am too old to re-start life by going to Liberty University to get a law degree!

[smirk5]

Didn't Newt preside over the attempted implementation of the Contract With America? How competent was he in getting that done?

[jsilver2th]

Gingrich Presidency: "A Crisis Of Incontinence"

Don't be fooled by the smoke and mirrors...
Newt & his crew consider themselves masters of marketing to Baby Boomers and are keenly aware that as a group boomers have a distrust of government which they exploit with issues that sound like they are responsive to this theme but equate with bib brother and the corporate state...

[jimfinster]

"I hope you%u2019ll join me so that we may together develop American solutions to problems facing America."

No thanks, Newt. I still remember your Contract with America. You should be hiding under an assumed name, rather than telling us how to "fix" the country (again).

[fairandbal]

The neo-con plan. The basic plan is to get rid of government programs that lift people up... so the eternal call that government is incompetent. So, ingenious plan... put the MOST IMCOMPETENT PRESIDENT IN OUR HISTORY in office and then have your own party say... 'See, Look, Government is incompetent we need to give more of it away to the rich!'

[hsinco-2009]

All from a man that initaled the dismantling of competent goverment while Speaker.

It shows how bad Bu$h has damaged the federal government.

But outsourcing government work (such as US Passports being processed in the private sector, IRS collections in the private sector) is NOT the answer.

[jsilver2th]

What a joke- "Liberty University" Liberty to do what Jerry Falwell wants- liberty to implement a theocracy- not liberty to live your life the way you want to- not that kind of liberty- the police state kind of liberty like Orwell said ... I hope the GOP nominates this moron- It will be the end of that party for 20 years...

[gkc99]

"Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich speaks to the graduating class of Liberty University "

And look where the dumbofucko is speaking--at Holy Roller U., where the question on every final exam is "WWJD"? Must be training some more interns for the Department of Justice.

Courses at Liberty U:

Creation Biology 1: Discuss Adam, Eve, and the Apple. The Origin of the Serpent is considered. Fossils are explained away.

Creation Chemistry 1: The four elements are discussed, as well as phlogiston and the philosopher's stone. Lab involves turning lead into gold with Jesus help.

Creation Astronomy 1: The orbit of the Sun around the Earth is calculated, and Galileo's heresy is recounted. Lab involves standing Sun still in sky.

Creation Medicine 1: The cause of leprosy in relation to the Evil One is considered.

Creation Political Science 1: The role of Satan's angels, known as Secular Humanists, in hurring the Rapture and the Breaking of the Seventh Seal is considered. Lab involves cross-burnings on lawns of Catholics and Mormons.

[gkc99]

"Gingrich: "A Crisis Of Competency"

Nothing more need be said. Fortunately he is out of the government. May it ever be so. The man is as thick as a stump. And good only for the same purpose--putting your A$$ on.

[rushlimpdrug]

"This standard is simple: more choices of higher quality at lower cost with greater convenience."

Sounds like someone has been buying krap from china at walmart.

[ioweign]

"A Crisis Of Competency" really!
Newt Gingrich has been married three times. He married Jackie Battley, his former high school geometry teacher, when he was 19 years old (she was seven years his senior at 26 years old). Was this to avoid the DRAFT?? After an alleged affair with Ann Manning in 1977, Gingrich sought a divorce from Battley. In 1981, Gingrich wed Marianne Ginther, to whom he remained married until 1999, the same year Gingrich had an affair with a then 33-year-old Congressional staffer, Callista Bisek. He and Bisek were married in 2000 and currently reside in Virginia. Gingrich has two daughters, Kathy and Jackie from his marriage to Jackie Battley, two sons-in-law and two grandchildren.

Newt, please be careful when using the word, competency. Such a word enrages intelligent individuals who have watched Bush and his Republican cohorts sell our country down the river to Halliburton, et al., plus install one of the most corrupt administrations in history bent on feathering the nests of the wealthy at the expense of the American people. Billions wasted, failed military incursions...this is the legacy of Bush and the Republican Congress which has rubber stamped his every act. Not only that, those loyal conservatives remaining in the Congress are still doing the same thing.
All the language used by Newt rings false and hypocritical... these platitudes and slogans are cryptic language for tearing down our most worthwhile governmental agencies and laws set in place to protect the American people from corporate greed.

[imnho]

Yes its 'A Crisis Of Competency'. GWB has proven to be completly incompetent. He has outaourced too many things to people who's only cliam to fame is that they are loyal to GWB. These contractors are ripping off everyone and not doing the work agreed too. After all there first loyalty is to greed as oppose to the nation.

[brianbwb-2009]

Newt, riiight. If he were president, the only thing left in America that wouldn't be screwed is his wife...

[zorlacskates]

no kidding, wogerwabbit. haliburton's operations may be the least efficient aspect of the iraq occupation. bush replaces government with corporate entities at every opportunity, and look how effective that's been. at it's heart the conservative message is warped: elect us to run a government we don't believe in, that we have no incentive to run successfully lest we undermine our own message.

[wogerwabbit]

Jeeze, I almost found myself agreeing with Newt until he got to the part about the private sector. This administration has outsourced everything they can to the private sector with little or no oversight and as a result, corporate criminals are plundering our treasury and we're getting nothing but screwed in return.