Newt Gingrich: I'll abolish WH czars on Day One
Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich today is rolling out what he's calling his "21st Century Contract with America" -- an updated take on the policy agenda he introduced in 1994 as speaker of the House.
Like the last contract, Gingrich's plan focuses on the themes of smaller government, lower taxes and greater citizen control. One of his first moves as president, Gingrich said on CBS' "The Early Show" on Thursday, would be to abolish the so-called White House "czars."
"The changes can begin within hours of being inaugurated," Gingrich said.
Gingrich said he'd issue somewhere between 50 and 200 executive orders on his first day in office and could implement a "dramatically smaller federal government."
"The only speaker of the House to balance the budget in your lifetime is me, and I think I can say with some authority, we can get back to a balanced budget if we have the right reforms," Gingrich told CBS News' Erica Hill. "Government will be smaller, leaner and more effective if we do it right."
The former speaker's plan also includes giving people more choices regarding how they buy health insurance, pay their income taxes and save for retirement.
With respect to income taxes, people could stick with the current system, or use an optional flat tax rate.
"It lets you decide whether you're better off to have a one-page form or whether you want to keep your home mortgage deduction, you want to keep various other kinds of deductions you currently have," he said. "I think it's very hard to get to a pure flat tax because people don't trust politicians and don't want to give up their various deductions."
Gingrich is introducing his plan in Iowa today, on the heels of a new poll showing an uptick of support for the former speaker among Republican voters. Gingrich won 11 percent in the new Fox News poll, coming in fourth place. Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney led in the poll with 23 percent, Texas Gov. Rick Perry received 19 percent support, and businessman Herman Cain garnered 17 percent.
