Newt Gingrich jumped right into the debt ceiling deal discussions between Joe Biden and Kevin McCarthy. The former speaker wrote a column asking Republicans in Congress to vote for it, as he sees it as a "first step toward ... common sense and conservatism."
After the 1994 midterm elections, Gingrich became the first Republican speaker of the House of Representatives in 40 years. After retiring in 1999, he turned to book writing, political commentary and was even encouraged to seek the White House in 2012.
In his defense of the debt ceiling deal, the Republican remarked again and again that it is a "powerful first step", one "toward creating a smaller government, lower taxes, less regulation, economic growth, prosperity, and more take home pay. All of this will also strengthen Social Security and Medicare."
Gingrich associated this negotiation to the one he faced in 1995, being the Republican speaker and negotiating with Democratic President Bill Clinton. In this regard, he indicated that they did not win the war in a single battle, but had to fight "step by step" to achieve a "generation of prosperity built on the foundations that President Ronald Reagan created in the 1980s."
The agreement reached Saturday night between Speaker Kevin McCarthy and President Joe Biden is an historic first step toward shifting government back toward common sense and conservatism.https://t.co/OtQXf1VnDf
— Newt Gingrich (@newtgingrich) May 30, 2023
A message to Republicans who disapproved of the debt ceiling deal
Since the details of the deal became known, numerous Republicans in Congress have spoken out against it, including Ted Cruz, Rand Paul, Mike Lee and Lindsey Graham in the Senate, and Chip Roy in the House of Representatives.
They, according to Gingrich, are "arguing from a mythical belief. Somehow, they think defeating this agreement would improve things. They could hardly be more wrong." He continued, saying, "This debt ceiling agreement is precisely in the tradition of how we operated to profoundly change Washington," he added.
In Gingrich's view, Capitol Hill Republicans face a "simple" choice, "help take the first step and move on to even bigger steps – or fight about it and hand the initiative over to President Biden and the Democrats."
While acknowledging the imperfections of the deal, he reiterated that this is about negotiating and even recalled Reagan's words. "He always said if you can get a 70% or 80% deal, you take it and come back for more," Gingrich said.
"They can support a more conservative future – or prove Republicans can’t govern even when they are winning. The lessons of President Reagan and the Contract with America are clear. They should all vote ‘yes’, and prove the House Republicans are now leading the future of America," said Gingrich, who will release a new book in June, titled "March to the Majority: The Real Story of the Republican Revolution."
