Newt Gingrich delivers annual Lincoln Day speech for Notre Dame College Republicans

 

Former Speaker of the House and 2012 presidential candidate Newt Gingrich spoke to a crowded Washington Hall about a 20 year plan for America.  The packed audience, gathered in Washington Hall on April 15, sat in rapt attention to hear Gingrich speak in commemoration of Lincoln Day.

Mark Gianfalla, president of Notre Dame College Republicans (NDCR), told the Rover that Gingrich was invited to deliver the annual Lincoln Day speech, “because of his ability to intelligently articulate conservative principles in a creative way.  We try to bring in well-known speakers to further the political discussion on campus and encourage the College Democrats to follow suit and utilize the increased equal funding we have fought to obtain for our two groups.”

Gingrich, first elected in 1978 to the House of Representatives, served as Whip for the Republican Party before becoming Speaker of the House in 1995.  He was the first Speaker in 40 years from the GOP.  He resigned in 1999, and has remained a leader in the Republican Party since then, running for the presidential nomination in 2012 before dropping out of the race after winning two primaries.  Gingrich has said that he will not be seeking another presidential bid in 2016.

The former Speaker greeted the attendees with an expression of his delight to return to the Notre Dame campus, having been here two years ago while working on 9 Days that Changed the World, a documentary about Pope Saint John Paul II.

Gingrich stressed two main points during his hour-long speech, which was followed by a question and answer session.  His first point was that the creativity in the coming years will spur a technological revolution that will solve problems we cannot yet imagine.  Secondarily, Gingrich emphasized that the current state of affairs in the American bureaucracy is so dismal that it cannot be fixed.

He noted that bureaucracy is one of the key issues we face today.  His example of this was aspirin, the miracle drug that saves millions of lives every year.  Due to heavy regulations, aspirin would not be approved if presented to the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today.  Gingrich posed the following question: What cancer, HIV, or dementia drug might not be approved because of bureaucracy?

“I think that the generation that is currently here, has the potential to be the most creative generation in government since the Founding Fathers. … The world is changing so dramatically,” he insisted.

“Think about this,” Gingrich beckoned.  “I was a well-learned scholar on the Soviet Union.  Then in 1991 it just disappeared.

“If something is dumb, it is a good idea to stop doing it,” Gingrich said, speaking on the topic of allowing people to defraud Medicare and Social Security.  “Stop paying the crooks, and we will save two trillion dollars over the next 10 years.”

When asked how we can address a mounting pile of debt, Gingrich replied, “You can balance the books in 8 years.  You cannot reform it, you need to replace it.”

To explain his point, he gave the example of an ATM machine.  “You are overseas,” he said, “you put a piece of plastic in a slot, enter four numbers, and the ATM sends a signal 11 thousand miles away, confirms with your bank that you have the funds to withdraw and spits out the money after factoring in the exchange rate.  It does this all in 11 seconds.”

Contrasting the technology used for banking, Newt said that it takes 177 days to transfer a record from the Pentagon to the Department of Veterans Affairs.  “We are using a bureaucracy system based on a model set forth in the 1890’s,” he declared.

During the question and answer portion of the address, Gingrich was asked how the Republican Party can win the presidential election in 2016.  Gingrich gave a two word response, “Be positive.”

Jane Pangburn, a sophomore living in Cavanaugh Hall, shared her impression of Gingrich’s speech with the Rover.  “He focused on the positive, on a generation that has the potential to create great results in the world,” she said.

“The speech was a good opportunity to get an inside look on the modern world and how politics can address the issues that we face today,” Scott Moore, Treasurer of NDCR, told the Rover.

In closing his speech, Gingrich circled back to the idea of creativity and change.  “The scale of change worldwide, the scale of change nationally, the scale of change in science: these guarantee that if we have the courage, we are going to break out [in all facets of development] in the next 20 or 30 years.  We are going to solve problems, as pioneers of the future.”

Martin Badinelli is a sophomore majoring in IT Management, finance, and financial accounting.  He is working hard to fit the word splendiferous into academic writing.  Contact him (he will not respond, but feel free to try) at mbadinel@nd.edu.