United Liberty

One of the more humorous pieces of news to come out of this fight between conservatives and the establishment over NY-23 is the reaction to Newt Gingrich’s endorsement of Dede Scozzafava, a candidate that is no friend of the taxpayer.

Earlier this month, I attended the Defending the American Dream Summit in Washington, DC where Newt Gingrich spoke. Tim Phillips, President of Americans for Prosperity, introduced Gingrich as the “intellectual leader of our movement.” If the movement Phillips was referring to consists of selling out taxpayers (both present and future) and free markets, then he was right.

A few years ago, I picked up a copy of Buck Wild: How Republicans Broke the Bank and Became the Party of Big Government by Stephen Slivinski. The book gives insight into the slide that eventually led to the spending spree of George W. Bush and a Republican-controlled Congress. Silvinski gives example after example of how Newt Gingrich sold out  of political expedency and threatened members of his own caucus if they didn’t vote how he wanted.

Even after he left Congress, Gingrich would support and lobby for a $9 trillion expansion of Medicare and support the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP), money that taxpayers probably won’t see again. His support of these two bills alone makes him unqualified to be the intellectual leader of any movement that supposedly supports economic policy that protects taxpayers. You may say that Gingrich has always supported tax cuts, and he has. However, the long-term consequences of his support for entitlement programs and bailouts funded entirely by debt will be higher taxes.

Newt Gingrich should not be praised as some great conservative leader. He has always believed in power and political expediency over principle.