03/17/07 — America is poised to undergo a period of enormous technological change in the next 25 years, but government at all levels is going to have to change as well, according to Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives.

“It’s almost as if we live in two different worlds,” said Gingrich, a Republican who served in Congress for 20 years, the last four as speaker. He made the remarks to a crowd of 330 at Meadville Area Senior High School at a fund-raiser for the Excalibur Charitable Foundation.

“On the one hand, we have breakthroughs in the private sector where business is able to produce more with less,” he said. “On the other hand, you have government with a fossilized bureaucracy set in 1965. The challenge for our nation is getting the things that work (in the private sector) to migrate into government,” Gingrich said.

With technological advances such as computers and cell phones, a small business now can be wired to the whole world and sell worldwide instantly, Gingrich said.

He cited the example of a person being able to track packages via computer at each stage of their shipment, yet the government can’t track and locate the estimated 13 million illegal immigrants in this country.

He doesn’t blame illegal immigrants themselves for the problem, but U.S. businesses that hire illegals and the federal government for not enforcing immigration laws.

Gingrich said he wants to see a guest worker program where immigrants get on the path to U.S. citizenship.

They would have to obey all U.S. laws or face expulsion within 48 hours; not vote in any other country; and English would become the official language of the government, Gingrich said.

Because of increased competition, business models can change rapidly and small business is better at adapting than big business, but government is slow-moving and top-heavy, he said.

Gingrich said he’s convinced America can succeed economically while facing ever increasing competition from China and India as those countries develop their economies.

However, it will take reform of litigation, regulation, education, taxes, health care and energy policy for the U.S. to do so, he said.

He said America turns out more lawyers than engineers annually while China does the opposite.

Tax laws need to be reformed to encourage both saving and investment, he said.

Gingrich favors having tax write-offs of 100 percent in one year on equipment so business will invest in new equipment each year. He also favors ending taxes on savings and abolishing inheritance taxes.

“That’s the threat to business,” Gingrich said of inheritance taxes.

Gingrich said America can compete in the world market with any country, but firms have to be able to invest in order to do so.

People need to demand change both in their government and educational system that defines what outcomes should be.

As part of educational reform, Gingrich said he is in favor paying the best teachers more money.

U.S. energy policy must change to lower the dependence on foreign oil because such dependence is a risk to national security and to the national economy.

Gingrich said he wants to see the development of hydrogen fuels and alternative fuel sources. Such a change would eliminate dependency on the Middle East and be better for the environment, he said.

Businesses have to be encouraged to develop preventative health care programs for workers. “It’s cheaper in the long run, not more expensive,” he said. “It lowers the cost (of health care).”

Gingrich said he expects scientific knowledge to expand rapidly in the next 25 years with as much as four to seven times in new scientific breakthroughs than in the past 25 years.

That’s because of today’s almost instantaneous communication allowing ideas to get into the marketplace faster, he said.

The digital revolution will fuel the pace of change, too, with the amount of computing power doubling about every 16 months, he said.



Will Gingrich seek president nomination?

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich won’t reveal whether he plans to seek the Republican nomination for president of the United States until at least Sept. 30.

During a news conference Friday before his speech, he said, “I won’t even think about it” until after a nationwide Internet-based workshop by American Solutions for Winning the Future, a group he created, is held Sept. 27. That workshop will cover topics from health care to taxation.

Gingrich feels it’s too early for candidates to campaign.

“It strikes me as kind of nutty to spend all of 2007 campaigning so you can spend all of 2008 campaigning so you can finally get a job in 2009,” he said.

— Keith Gushard