But even as I was writing this analysis of the Republican presidential nomination field, including my diagnosis of Newt's ADHD, he had another attack. On the May 15th edition of Meet the Press, he had this exchange with David Gregory:
MR. GREGORY: What about entitlements? The Medicare trust fund, in stories that have come out over the weekend, is now going to be depleted by 2024 , five years earlier than predicted. Do you think that Republicans ought to buck the public opposition and really move forward to completely change Medicare , turn it into a voucher program where you give seniors...
- REP. GINGRICH: Right.
- MR. GREGORY: ...some premium support and -- so that they can go out and buy private insurance ?
- REP. GINGRICH: I don't think right-wing social engineering is any more desirable than left- wing social engineering . I don't think imposing radical change from the right or the left is a very good way for a free society to operate. I think we need a national conversation to get to a better Medicare system with more choices for seniors. But there are specific things you can do . At the Center for Health Transformation , which I helped found, we published a book called " Stop Paying the Crooks ." We thought that was a clear enough, simple enough idea, even for Washington . We -- between Medicare and Medicaid , we pay between $70 billion and $120 billion a year to crooks. And IBM has agreed to help solve it, American Express has agreed to help solve it, Visa 's agreed to help solve it. You can't get anybody in this town to look at it. That's, that's almost $1 trillion over a decade. So there are things you can do to improve Medicare .
Interestingly, there has been to date no poll released that addresses the Republican nomination race since The Huck's withdrawal, since Newt's self-immolation, since Daniels' withdrawal, and since Pawlenty's announcement of his candidacy.
The polls here are all sooo fortnight before last!
