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January 18, 2006
Winning the Future
I am about a quarter of the way through Newt Gingrich's book Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract With America and so far I have mixed reactions. I agree with most of the policy recommendations although generally they are not that original such as privatized social security accounts and more money for intelligence services.
He has come across as way too populist for my taste so far by saying that Americans will support these things because polls say so. Americans are far too fickle to make it wise to depend on polls for the implementation of policy. I suspect his poll numbers are right for instance that most Americans would want private accounts for social security, but I also suspect that most Americans do not want to raise taxes or decrease benefits. You are going to have to do at least one of these other things, sooner if you add private accounts, which are more of a very long term solution. Populism as a basis for policy change makes it extremely hard to make the hard choices that are needed to make the government work well and work within its means. This is especially true when you are talking about policy changes that won't show immediate benefits. My preference would be for a combination of means testing (reducing benefits) for recipients along with delaying the retirement age (reducing benefits) combined with private accounts for those under a certain age (as long as that age includes me).
His other good semi-original idea so far is an increase in propaganda funding for the war on terror, which he rightly defines as a war on radical Islamist groups and a war on rogue states that support them. Iran and North Korea are his two main examples of rogue states. I think a new type of Voice of America for the Arab and Muslim worlds would be very good policy idea and would help encourage dissidents in these rogue states and in countries with terrorist organizations.
Posted by Pete at January 18, 2006 10:42 AM
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Comments
Write more comments on this book so I don't have to read it. I have enough books stacked on my shelf already.
Americans, I think, can be relied on for wanting two things: more help from the government and less taxes. Unfortunately, this can't be as easily solved as the last case of "wanting the cake and eating it to" when the idea of pizza delivery became reality.
Posted by: Jeff at January 18, 2006 07:28 PM