Newt: Fiscal Cliff 'Artificial Invention'

Newt Gingrich: “Well, I think there are a lot worse things than going over a man-made cliff that I think is entirely artificial. And I think the reality is, the President of the United States has not come forward with any serious spending cuts. What the Democrats are proposing is to take the tax increase now, and then sometime next year, eventually, possibly, we might have some kind of entitlement reform. That’s a really bad deal for the American people.”

Greta Van Sustern: “Well, I don’t know if it’s also a deal that anyone expects could be realistically kept. I mean, any deal that’s made today in Washington is amended next week and the week after, or not kept. So I mean, it’s, like, you know, you make your deal right now, and you hope that it even can last — last through the year. Am I right?”

Newt Gingrich: “Well, the only way you guarantee deals is you actually pass them into law. Then it’s a lot harder to change them. And my only point is, you know, if we had a game, and every time the term fiscal cliff came up, people had to donate a dollar to something, you’d be amazed in the course of a week or two how often this has been repeated like a mantra. I compared to a great essay by Tom Wolfe called “Mau-Mauing the Flak Catchers” in which people chanted and made noise in order to get their way. I think we ought to recognize this entire fiscal cliff is an artificial invention of Washington, created by people in the Congress and the presidency. And it can be broken down by them into a series of steps that can be taken without having to be rushed into one gigantic, last- minute, little understood, with no hearings, one vote up or down — I think it’s a terrible way to govern the United States.”