Newt Gingrich throws in his two cents on economy

“I wish I was here to talk about economic growth,” said Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the House, as he began his speech at the National Press Club on solutions for solving the current economic crisis. Gingrich said he would have reluctantly voted for the $700 billion bailout plan proposed in the House yesterday. Despite his objections to a bailout of Wall Street CEOs, Gingrich said it was worse to do nothing.

Gingrich blamed the failure of the bill largely on the Democrats and Secretary of Treasury Henry Paulson. Nancy Pelosi has a majority, said Gingrich, it is inappropriate and partisan if she can’t pass a bill in her own House. For Gingrich, the mortgage crisis is a product of policies pursued by the Clinton and Carter administrations, whose liberal agendas pushed for housing for everyone and led many people to take out sub-prime mortgages which they couldn’t pay back.

Gingrich offered his own advice for solving the current economic crisis. He was open to getting suggestions from experts and investors, and wanted to set up a website for people outside of Congress to post their ideas. He also wanted to suspend the Mark-to-Market Accounting system, and create an accounting system with more rules for “transparency, transaction and responsibility.” The average American needs fairness and reliability, said Gingrich, we shouldn’t have to pay for the problems on Wall Street.