Gingrich: A Reminder of How We Got Here

Former Speaker Newt Gingrich is absolutely correct: "for twenty-five years we've lived a lie." In terms of housing, our jobs, our finances, our possessions, we wanted what we wanted when we wanted it.

It takes two to tango. Once many Americans discovered they could acquire their own piece of the McMansion Pie, they stepped up and took advantage of same, frequently re-financing in order to acquire the new pool, the new boat, the new RV, the new vacation home. Both ends of the equation got greedy.

Mr Gingrich is also correct when he says:

The entirely economic problem we have right now is a cultural problem. We don't want to reward saving and investing, we don't want to reward working, we don't want to encourage being prudent, we don't want to want to tell the truth about your finances, we don't want to make you a responsible adult -- and you think you can run a country this way?"

Gingrich is obviously an historian, so please note the most important words extant:

This is precisely what Madison and Jefferson wrote in The Federalist Papers: that any time the weakest of the three branches [Legislative, Executive, Judicial. -BZ] takes on the two elected branches, if the two elected branches are serious, they will in fact guarantee the defeat of the Judicial Branch."

PRECISELY.

BZ