BR549
5/27/2012 1:23:00 PM
On May 27, 5:14 am, robw <noddy...@comcast.net> wrote:
> On May 26, 10:10 pm, "Robert Westergrom,1900 Harvey
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> rd.,Wilmington,D.E" <burtonu...@gmail.com> wrote:
> > On May 26, 8:42 pm, linuxgal <linux...@cleanposts.com> wrote:
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> > > Tracey12 wrote:
> > > > You may not believe it will happen, but mark my word...Hillary will
> > > > absolutely replace Biden because dems know Hillary has been groomed
> > > > for the job, and it is her plan and Bill Clinton's.
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> > > > Here is the plan:
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> > > > Hillary becomes VP now. In 2016, she will run for the White House and
> > > > easily win if she and Obama win in November.
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> > > > Once Hillary is president, she and Bill Clinton will rule again.
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> > > That would be awesome. The last time the federal debt got smaller was
> > > three years under Clinton.
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> > After he was bitchslapped by the Gingrich led Republican Congress.
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> Wow, now tell us more about Newtie's accomplishments.
> (snicker)- Hide quoted text -
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Newton Leroy "Newt" Gingrich ( /'nju?t 'g??gr?t?/; born Newton Leroy
McPherson; June 17, 1943) is an American politician, author, and
political consultant. He represented Georgia's 6th congressional
district as a Republican from 1979 until his resignation in 1999, and
served as the 58th Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives from
1995 to 1999. Gingrich was a candidate for the 2012 Republican Party
presidential nomination.
In the 1970s, Gingrich taught history and geography at the University
of West Georgia. During this period he ran twice (1974 and 1976)[3]
for the United States House of Representatives before winning in
November 1978. He served as House Minority Whip from 1989 to 1995.
A co-author and architect of the "Contract with America", Gingrich was
a major leader in the Republican victory in the 1994 congressional
election. In 1995, Time named him "Man of the Year" for "his role in
ending the four-decades-long Democratic majority in the House".[4]
While he was House speaker, the House enacted welfare reform, passed a
capital gains tax cut in 1997, and in 1998 passed the first balanced
budget since 1969. The poor showing by Republicans in the 1998
Congressional election and pressure from Republican colleagues caused
Gingrich's resignation from the speakership on November 5, 1998, and
then the House on January 3, 1999.
Since leaving the House, Gingrich has remained active in public policy
debates and worked as a political consultant. He founded and chaired
several policy think tanks, including American Solutions for Winning
the Future and the Center for Health Transformation. He is a member of
the Council on Foreign Relations.[5] He has written or co-authored 27
books. In May 2011, he announced his campaign for the Republican
presidential nomination. On May 2, 2012, Gingrich ended his
presidential campaign and is expected to endorse front-runner Mitt
Romney.[6]
After being raised Lutheran and spending most of his adult life as a
Southern Baptist, Gingrich converted to Roman Catholicism in 2009. He
has been married three times, with the first two marriages ending in
divorce. He has two children from his first marriage and has been
married to Callista (Bisek) Gingrich since 2000.
In 1996, after constructing two welfare reform bills that Clinton
vetoed,[47] Gingrich and his supporters pushed for passage of the
Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was intended
to reconstruct the welfare system. The act gave state governments more
autonomy over welfare delivery, while also reducing the federal
government's responsibilities. It instituted the Temporary Assistance
for Needy Families program, which placed time limits on welfare
assistance and replaced the longstanding Aid to Families with
Dependent Children program. Other changes to the welfare system
included stricter conditions for food stamp eligibility, reductions in
immigrant welfare assistance, and recipient work requirements.[48]
Gingrich negotiated with Clinton by offering accurate information
about his party's vote counts and by persuading conservative
Republicans to vote for it.[47] The bill was signed into law on August
22, 1996.
By May 1997, Republican congressional leaders reached a compromise
with the Democrats and President Clinton on the federal budget. The
agreement called for a federal spending plan designed to reduce the
federal deficit and achieve a balanced budget by 2002. The plan
included a total of $152 billion in Republican sponsored tax cuts over
five years. Other major parts of the spending plan called for $115
billion to be saved through a restructuring of Medicare, $24 billion
set aside to extend health insurance to children of the working poor,
tax credits for college tuition, and a $2 billion welfare-to-work jobs
initiative.[51][52]
President Clinton signed the budget legislation in August 1997. At the
signing, Gingrich gave credit to ordinary Americans stating, "It was
their political will that brought the two parties together."[53]
In early 1998, with the economy performing better than expected,
increased tax revenues helped reduce the federal budget deficit to
below $25 billion. Gingrich then called upon Clinton to submit a
balanced budget for 1999—three years ahead of schedule—which Clinton
did, making it the first time the federal budget had been balanced
since 1969.[54]
In 1997 President Clinton signed into effect the Taxpayer Relief Act
of 1997, which included the largest capital gains tax cut in U.S.
history. Under the act, the profits on the sale of a personal
residence ($500,000 for married couples, $250,000 for singles) were
exempted if lived in for at least 2 years over the last 5. (This had
previously been limited to a $125,000 once-in-a-lifetime exemption for
those over 55.)[55] There were also reductions in a number of other
taxes on investment gains.[56][57]
Additionally, the act raised the value of inherited estates and gifts
that could be sheltered from taxation.[57] Gingrich has been credited
with creating the agenda for the reduction in capital gains tax,
especially in the "Contract with America", which set out to balance
the budget and implement decreases in estate and capital gains tax.
Some Republicans felt that the compromise reached with Clinton on the
budget and tax act was inadequate,[58] however Gingrich has stated
that the tax cuts were a significant accomplishment for the Republican
Congress in the face of opposition from the Clinton administration.
[59] Gingrich along with Bob Dole had earlier set-up the Kemp
Commission, headed by former US Secretary of Housing and Urban
Development Jack Kemp, a tax reform commission that made several
recommendations including that dividends, interest, and capital gains
should be untaxed
Clinton said Republican amendments would strip the U.S. Treasury of
its ability to dip into federal trust funds to avoid a borrowing
crisis. Republican amendments would have limited appeals by death-row
inmates, made it harder to issue health, safety and environmental
regulations, and would have committed the president to a seven-year
balanced budget. Clinton vetoed a second bill allowing the government
to keep operating beyond the time when most spending authority expires.
[64]
A GOP amendment opposed by Clinton would have not only have increased
Medicare Part B premiums, but it would also cancel a scheduled
reduction. The Republicans held out for an increase in Medicare part B
premiums in January 1996 to $53.50 a month. Clinton favored the then
current law, which was to let the premium that seniors pay drop to
$42.50.[64]
The government closed most non-essential offices during the shutdown,
which was the longest in U.S. history. The shutdown was ended when
Clinton agreed to submit a CBO-approved balanced budget plan.[65]