As Gingrich rightly points out, basically the US military was asked to perform 2 impossible tasks – win the war and act as a functioning bureaucracy. The second task is not something a military can credibly do.

Even in Afghanistan, the bureaucracy was the problem. As Gingrich states, 'In 2002, I learned that the United States had been unable to pave a single mile of road in Afghanistan during the summer season.' This was due to bureaucratic incompetence not a lack of money. Like Iraq, billions were spent in Afghanistan with no results, no metrics and no rush to implement something which would work. Thousands of swarming bureaucrats covered both countries like locusts, bunkered down, meeting, meeting again, meeting some more, with no view on being effective and without a coordinated and intelligent plan about meeting key metrics in energy, transportation, infrastructure build, policing or public safety. The burden was placed solely on the military.

2. Immigration Gingrich voted for the Reagan amnesty bill of 1986 because it promised to be a one time deal. The deal was simple: illegal amnesty would be granted once; border security and control would be effected immediately; and there would be a verification of all foreign workers now and going forward. Only the amnesty occurred. The US now has most likely over 30 million illegals. It is a cultural, social and economic burden that is unsustainable. Contrary to myth uneducated illegals are a net drain on the US economy – by at least $50 billion per annum.

According to Gingrich and American Solutions over 75% of Americans want the border secured and do not want amnesty given to illegals; and they want more skilled workers on work visas. Yet they will most likely receive the opposite of that from their politicians. The border remains – even with the building of the southern fence – open with all the risks regarding terrorism and fascist Islam that entails; and most politicians eying the Hispanic and minority vote want to appear sympathetic to the idea of amnesty. The idea of extending skilled workers visas does not sit well with protectionists, unions and those who prefer illegal immigration to legal, documented visa based immigration.

3. Tax and spending cuts Only a few politicians really believe that government is fundamentally too large, and that taxes are ridiculously high. For most politicians the tax payer is a faceless robot, who should pay more into the system to establish more programs and more welfare services. Gingrich outlines why historically, regimes with high taxes and big government have failed. Dynamic and productive societies have a true belief in entrepreneurship, capital formation, science and technological innovation. Static and regressive states do not.

Gingrich and his organisation are calling for some needed and dramatic fiscal reforms including: tort and legal liability reform; a national flat tax on consumption with a change in the constitution to prevent income from being taxed in the future; abolishing all other taxes on income and capital gains and reducing non-essential spending by over half. If even a small part of this plan was adopted the US economy would add millions of jobs literally over night and be running huge federal budget surpluses.

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