Former Speaker of the House and GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich appeared on FOX News’ “Hannity” Thursday night where he gave some advice to newly re-elected Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) and House Republicans.
The former Georgia lawmaker served as a speaker of the House of Representatives from 1995 to 1999 while he represented Georgia’s 6th congressional district.
Gingrich told Sean Hannity that House Republicans, who are the majority party in the lower chamber, ought to consider three major tasks as they move forward, now that the “fiscal cliff” debacle is over.
First, according to the former speaker, they should form an alliance with the 30 Republican governors across the country. Gingrich pointed out that 24 of them have Republican legislature and the Republican Party at the state levels is balancing budgets, passing “smart reforms,” and “working to save money.”
Secondly, Gingrich believes the House GOP should hold a series of hearings on financial waste in federal government “so people get sickened by the way this government is throwing away our money.”
And lastly, Gingrich advised the House to start passing “common sense bills” right now. The former speaker said that Republicans should just focus on their agenda and continue legislating.
He added that GOP should communicate and seek support from their electorate back home as well as the Republican state legislatures, but stay away from secret negotiations with the President.
“Let the President respond to the things you’re doing,” said Gingrich. “Don’t sit around in a closed room with him, where he can dominate the media from the White House.”
The 1995 Time Magazine’s “Man of the Year,” Gingrich has had much success as the House Speaker. Under his leadership, the House enacted welfare reform, passed a capital gains tax cut and in 1998 passed the first balanced budget in almost 30 years, among other things.
Not quite as popular among his Republican colleagues after a poor showing in the 1998 elections, Gingrich resigned as speaker in November of 1998.
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