Politics

Gingrich urges GOP to stand firm against ‘bully’ Obama

C.J. Ciaramella Contributor
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The Republican-led House of Representatives should stand up to President Barack Obama and push through legislation resolving the debt-ceiling standoff, GOP presidential candidate Newt Gingrich said Friday.

“Obama has put the ‘bully’ back in the bully pulpit,” the former House speaker said, accusing the president of “arrogance” and “intellectual dishonesty,” among other things. Gingrich urged the House to quit negotiations with the president and focus on passing legislation.

Gingrich said Republicans should take Social Security off the table, draft what he called a “Social Security Payment Guarantee Act,” and pass a temporary solution to the debt crisis — daring Obama to veto it.

Gingrich advocated entitlement reforms to decrease spending and increased offshore energy production to raise revenue. He likened the current situation to his time in Congress in the mid-’90s, when Republicans wrested control of the House away from the Democrats and maintained a majority through the next election.

“A key in our reelection was that people thought we were serious,” Gingrich said. “We were willing to take a serious risk to stand up for what we believed in.”

Gingrich also urged Republicans to be more vocal in criticizing what he referred to as “the Obama recession.” (Gingrich is more than $1 million in debt)

“This is the Obama recession, and we in the Republican Party should be very confident we can tell the truth better than the Democrats can lie,” Gingrich said.