With the latest Bloomberg News poll placing Newt Gingrich in 4th place at 17% behind Cain, Paul, and Romney respectively, but ahead of Perry, Bachmann, and a slew of other candidates, questions about Gingrich’s recent surge are emerging. Why are conservative Republicans supporting a man who has no conservative values? Do Tea Partiers realize that in addition to Newt’s social discrepancies, he supports progressive concepts like mandated healthcare and a carbon tax?
Climate Change / Carbon Tax / Cap & Trade
The Boston Globe – April 11, 2007
In a Capitol Hill debate about global warming touted by its moderator as a “smackdown” between former House speaker Newt Gingrich and Senator John F. Kerry of Massachusetts, Gingrich praised Kerry’s recently released book about environmentalism, acknowledged that global warming is real, and offered what amounted to an unexpected apology for his party’s inaction on curtailing greenhouse gas emissions.
PBS Frontline – February 15, 2007
“I think if you have mandatory carbon caps combined with a trading system, much like we did with sulfur, and if you have a tax-incentive program for investing in the solutions, that there’s a package there that’s very, very good.” – Newt Gingrich
Healthcare Mandate
In an 2007 OpEd for the Des Moines Register, Newt Gingrich wrote,
Personal responsibility extends to the purchase of health insurance. Citizens should not be able to cheat their neighbors by not buying insurance, particularly when they can afford it, and expect others to pay for their care when they need it.
Conservative commentators who believe that Newt is emerging as the conservative anti-Romney couldn’t be further from the truth. Gingrich’s support of the major tenet of Obamacare / Romneycare is antithetical to conservative values.
Whatever the cause of Newt’s recent, upward swing in the polls is, what is certain is that his numbers will fall back into the low-tier category once his views have been examined thoroughly.
