Social Policy A La Newt

To get a sense of the basic hollowness of Newt Gingrich's "transformational" agenda for American conservatism, it's necessary to read his long-winded discussion of aging and retirement issues in America. Huge proportions of it are dedicated to rehashing tired bogus arguments -- Social Security is bad for black people, if we use inconsistent assumptions about GDP growth rates, then stocks are much better than guaranteed benefits -- because he's just putting forth the same old policy ideas: Health Savings Accounts and Social Security privatization.

And, so, fine. Conservatives shouldn't adopt a new set of ideas just for the sake of finding "new ideas." But Gingrich's whole schtick is the idea that he's some brilliant outside the box thinker when, in fact, all he has is the same old policies in what's more-or-less the same old packaging to boot.

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