Talking Points Memo flags this “austerity” criticism from Newt Gingrich as a sign the speaker is out of touch with the rest of the Republican Party:
The 2012 Republican presidential candidate was asked by NBC’s David Gregory on “Meet The Press” whether his hopes for a U.S. colony on the moon fly in the face of the GOP’s fiscal responsibility mantra. Gingrich responded with some choice words about austerity itself before defending his lunar ambitions.
“First of all, David, I don’t think you’ll ever find me talking about an age of austerity. I don’t think that’s the right solution,” Gingrich said. “I am a pro-growth Republican. I’m a pro-growth conservative. I think the answer is to grow the economy, not to punish the American people with austerity.”
Writes TPM reporter Sahil Kapur:
His comments are remarkable in that they appear to contradict the core economic belief of the modern Republican Party that Gingrich hopes to lead. In this era of high deficits, austerity is routinely heralded by conservatives and GOP lawmakers as the path to economic prosperity, and the party was successful last year in keeping the issue atop the 2011 legislative agenda.
It’s a little simplistic to say austerity is the “core economic belief” of the Republican Party. Pro-growth policies should go hand-in-hand with necessary budget cuts. But that has little to do with Gingrich’s moon program, which comes off as wildly out-of-touch with what the conservative movement – and independent voters – think is necessary for the country’s future. In fact, according to a poll by The Hill today, just one out of five voters support Gingrich’s permanent moon colony proposal. As the public watches the default disaster unfolding in Greece, and our country’s own debt piles up, the appetite for a moon colony is understandably small.
Do you really think the Republican message is that Jimmy Carter was right, that America is in a hopeless decline and that the American dream is dust, that America wants a President who will fire anyone who has an idea other than how to downsize America? Just because government is too big doesn't mean America's future is too big. That's Obamaism: "America is nothing special." The President is supposed to be a leader, not a corporate CEO. America has a constitution, not a ledger. Please, Romneyites, try to get it before Obama gets re-elected!
The fact that Gingrich's Moon colony idea meets with so little support amongst voters is not an indictment of him but of the American people. Those of a certain age can remember when the Moon was within our grasp, and the premises of "2001: a Space Odyssey" and "Space: 1999" were considered entirely plausible by the mainstream. Instead of 2001's becoming a watershed of human achievement, it became a watershed of human depravity. n nThere is much to mock about Newt Gingrich, and even his pandering to the Space Coast, but to mock the idea of manned space exploration strikes me as fairly despicable. A colony on the Moon? Why not? Can't afford it? Nonsense! Bounties as incentives, like they did in the Age of Discovery? Why not? n nIf this nation cannot imagine great things and strive for them, then it deserves no future. Exploration is what humans do. All else is mere survival and self-gratification. The tired platitude that if we can go to the moon then we can solve the problems of earth is an excuse for small-mindedness and sloth. Anyway, space exploration WILL solve the problems of earth! If nothing else, it will give our youth a world of purpose and adventure rather than their current squalid world of fashionable nihilism and aimlessness. n nThink, we could have taken the money spent on Bush/Cheney's wars, or their tax cuts for the rich, and paid for colonies on Mars! Imagine the exalted state to which we might have brought humanity, instead of this present moral miasma. Or perhaps such aspirations, once shared by many, are now only met with blank-eyed bemusement. And speaking of George W. Bush, at least he had enough of "the vision thing" to propose a manned mission to Mars. n nAs for austerity or, if you prefer, economic discipline, such measures may work in Germany, where discipline is a fetish. But in the United States, a big dose of castor oil for the sake of character doesn't mean much if the immediate consequence is millions out on the street, which is exactly what would have happened were it not for the current debt, which is not the result of chronic government profligacy but of two botched wars and the emergency bailout from the culmination of almost 30 years of unbridled greed facilitated by GOP presidents and congresses, and acquiesced to by pusillanimous Democrats, not the entitlements that are the GOP's code word for tax money to people we don't like. n nI wonder if Newt is really a closet Keynesian. Or at least more John Locke than John Calvin.
So the current debt "is not the result of chronic government profligacy" but of "two botched wars" plus "the culmination of almost 30 years of unbridled greed facilitated by GOP presidents and congresses"? That's moonshine of the purest ray sublime. Everybody knows, even if some are unwilling to admit, that entitlement spending absolutely cannot be sustained over the long term. Unless something is done to reform entitlements (Social Security, Medicare, etc.) such spending will simply devour the entire federal budget, leaving nothing for Moon bases, Mars missions and wars—botched or unbotched. It may well be true that the Americican people are unwilling to accept austerity. But one way or another, they're going to get it.
I think the space colony is ridiculous, but it is also a very interesting thing that I wish Commentary would write about.
I honestly do not think Gingrich is running on a "moon colony" presidential platform. He was trying to channel a hopeful vision of America in Florida…you know, where the space industry is centered.Yes, he blundered t and doesn't know how to take criticism well. But deep down I know Alana Goodman would be the first to lambast a President Gingrich should he NOT immediately go to the moon, calling him the most vile of political insult: a flip-flopper. I get his message: Get the economy in order so we can continue to dream big American dreams like building a moon colony. I like it better than Romney's message: Get the economy in order so we can help the middle class. Reagan had the right of it, "The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help'"
It is just sad to see a conservative magazine taking every opportunity to nit-pick and attack a fine conservative leader like Newt Gingrich. n nI mean, my goodness, Newt's economic plan, according to the Wall Street Journal and economists like Art Laffer, is far more conservative and bolder than Romney's. If we cut taxes, reform regulation, reduce spending, and develop our oil and natural gas resources, as Newt has suggested, we won't have to worry about "an age of austerity." That's what Newt is saying, and it's hard to fathom how anyone could misunderstand his message here. n nAs for the moon colony, Newt has said over and over and over again that it would be largely privately funded in response to federal prize funds (which Newt has said would come from NASA's existing budget, by the way), and that to become a reality the program would have to be viewed as economically viable by a sufficient number of private investors. Newt has also talked about significantly reducing the size of NASA's bureaucracy and relying a lot more on private funding for all NASA projects. n nIt's just baffling to see so many Republicans lining behind a guy–Romney–who in 2002 described himself as a "moderate" with "progressive" views, a guy who opposed the Bush tax cuts, a guy who in 2006 praised Ted Kennedy for playing a "critical" role in helping to craft Romneycare, a guy who said on Meet the Press in 2007 and in his own book that Romneycare would be a good model for the rest of the country and who then took that statement out of the next edition of the book and now denies–incredibly–ever having said it, a guy who increased MA state spending by over 10% in his last year as governor, a guy who submitted a tax hike in 2006 that was so high that even the Democratic-controlled legislature balked at it, a guy who defended MA's draconian gun control laws but who then joined the NRA a few months before he ran for president and went around touting himself as pro-gun, and on and on we could go. I mean, are you serious? n n