THE 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SURVEY CANDIDATE NARRATIVE RESPONSE

Candidate Name:

Newt Gingrich

15. Additional comments to clarify candidate's responses on the support/oppose statements: 16. Have you pursued an independent, group or academic study of the U.S. Constitution? (You may list any references material or coursework with which you engaged) I have dedicated much of my career to studying the founding, the Declaration of Independence, and the Constitution. I have taught several courses on American exceptionalism, I have had the privilege of discussing the Constitution with both experts and my students, and these experiences have greatly influenced by decision-making processes as a leader. / I wrote a book last year, A Nation Like No Other, that is a culmination of a lifetime of studying Constitutional principles and the God-given rights that make our nation so exceptional. In this book, I wrote about the ideals and principles expressed in the Declaration of Independence that came to define American civilization. This is the first country in the history of the world founded on the idea that the individual is sovereignthat we are the source of political legitimacy and that we loan power to the government. / The Founders' belief in limited government, self-rule, and natural rights to "life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" determined not only the character of our constitution, but our cultural ethos as well. / Even if many Americans are today unaware of the origins of these principles, they form the creed that we have lived by throughout our history, and to which we owe our freedom. / 17. Please identify the top three issues that you feel are the most important to your potential constituents. Immediate repeal of Obamacare, empowering job creators to hire through a combination of tax and regulatory reforms and an American Energy Plan, and restoring the paramount role of the Constitution including devolving many duties back to the states and reining in activist judges are three of the most important issues of this campaign. 18. If elected, how will you focus on the top three issues most important to your potential constituents? We must repeal Obamacare and pass a replacement that saves lives and money by empowering patients and doctors, not bureaucrats and politicians. / We will with a bold set of tax cuts and regulatory reforms that will free American entrepreneurs to invest and hire, as well as by reforming the Federal Reserve and creating a training requirement for extended federal unemployment benefits to encourage work and improve the quality of our workforce. Additionally, we will unleash Americas full energy production potential in oil, natural gas, coal, biofuels, wind, nuclear oil shale and more, creating jobs, stimulating a sustainable manufacturing boom, lowering gasoline and other energy prices, increasing government revenues, and bolstering national security. / / With millions of Americans returning to work and American energy unleashed, tax revenues will grow and we will move toward a balanced budget. / / Finally, we will reassert Constitutional principles. We will restore the proper role of the judicial branch by using the clearly delineated powers available to the president and Congress to correct, limit, or replace judges who violate the Constitution. We will enforce the tenth Amendment by starting an orderly transfer of power and responsibility from the federal government back to the states, respectively, or to the people, as the Constitution requires. /

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THE 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SURVEY CANDIDATE NARRATIVE RESPONSE

19. Please explain what you hope to accomplish if elected. In September, I put forward my ten top priorities that, if elected, I pledge and promise to pursue once elected. The ten legislative proposals in our 21st Century Contract with America (available in full form at newt.org) are: / 1. Repeal Obamacare / 2. Return to robust job creation / 3. Unleash Americas full energy production potential / 4. Save Medicare and Social Security / 5. Balance the federal budget / 6. Control the border by January 1, 2014 / 7. Revitalize our national security system / 8. Maximize the speed and impact of medical breakthroughs / 9. Restore the proper role of the judicial branch / 10. Enforce the Tenth Amendment / 20. Why do you feel you deserve the confidence of the voters? I am the only candidate who has experience leading successful conservative reform at a national level, and I pledge to continue to fight for smaller government, pro-growth reforms and a return to Constitutional principles in the White House. / In 1994, I led the Republicans into the House majority for the first time in four decades. We pledged to balance the budget in seven years, and we did it in three than balanced it four years in a row. We pared down regulations and passed the largest capital gains tax in history, which both helped empower American entrepreneurs to create 11 million new jobs in only four years. We passed pro-work, pro-growth welfare reform, successfully devolving control of a major entitlement from Washington to the states within a decade, welfare rolls had fallen by half. / 21. If elected, how will you defend the Constitution of the United States of America and your State Constitution from all enemies, foreign and domestic? We must always be vigilant about our sovereignty, and hold our lawmakers and courts accountable to our Constitution and only our Constitution. / This is a belief firmly rooted in American Exceptionalism. As citizens, we came together to create an American government and body of laws of the people, by the people, and for the people. / I have vocally stood up for American sovereignty against Washington elites and an Obama Administration who view America as an unremarkable nation. / I believe that it is a violation of our sovereignty when the Department of Justice attempts to cite international norms to restrict our Second Amendment rights. It is a violation of our sovereignty when the White House sends taxpayer dollars towards a UN environmental program, Agenda 21, which infringes on Americans property rights / There are actions I will take on the first day to end Obamas assault on the states: / I will instruct the Attorney General to withdraw all immigration-related lawsuits against states immediately, including those pending in Arizona and South Carolina. / I will rescind Obamas Executive Order that funds Agenda 21-type programs. / Domestically, the disastrous reinterpretation of the Constitution by out-of-control, activist judges since the 1930s has been destructive to our society and almost always has dramatically expanded the size and role of government. The Constitution provided for a narrowly defined and limited judiciary as Alexander Hamilton made clear in the Federalist Papers, and my Administration will work to bring the courts back under the Constitution. / / My administration will reject the theory of judicial supremacy and will reject passivity as a response to Supreme Court rulings that ignore executive and legislative concerns and which seek to institute policy changes that more properly rest with Congress. A Gingrich administration will use any appropriate executive branch powers, by itself and acting in coordination with the legislative branch, to check and balance any Supreme

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THE 2012 REPUBLICAN PRESIDENTIAL PRIMARY SURVEY CANDIDATE NARRATIVE RESPONSE

Court decision it believes to be fundamentally unconstitutional and to rein in any federal judge(s) whose rulings exhibit a disregard for the Constitution. /

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