Newt Gingrich served as 50th Speaker (R) of the U.S. House of Representatives and unsuccessfully ran for President of the U.S. in 2012. Today, he is Chairman of Gingrich 360, a full-service American consulting, education, and media production group, as well as Host of the weekly "Newt's World" podcast and a semi-weekly syndicated columnist. He received his M.A. and Ph.D. in history from Tulane University and was first elected to Congress in 1978.
In 1983, Gingrich founded the Conservative Opportunity Society (COS), a group that included young conservative House Republicans. President Reagan adopted the "opportunity society" ideas for his 1984 re-election campaign, supporting the group's conservative goals on economic growth, education, crime, and social issues. In March 1989, Gingrich became House Minority Whip, and following the 1994 midterm elections, Gingrich was the primary architect of the "Contract with America," that outlined legislation to be enacted by the House within the first 100 days of the 104th Congress, including tax cuts, a permanent line-item veto, and a constitutional amendment requiring a balanced budget. In 1996, Gingrich pushed for passage of the Personal Responsibility and Work Opportunity Act, which was intended to reconstruct the welfare system. The act gave state governments more autonomy over welfare delivery, while also reducing the federal government's responsibilities. It instituted the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program, which placed time limits on welfare assistance and replaced the longstanding Aid to Families with Dependent Children program. Other changes to the welfare system included stricter conditions for food stamp eligibility, reductions in immigrant welfare assistance, and work requirements for recipients. The bill was signed into law by President Clinton on August 22, 1996. In 1997, President Clinton signed into effect the Taxpayer Relief Act of 1997, which included the largest capital gains tax cut in U.S. history. Gingrich has been credited with creating the agenda for the reduction in capital gains tax, especially in the "Contract with America", which set out to balance the budget and implement decreases in estate and capital gains tax.
After leaving Congress in 2007, he became a commentator on Fox News and founded American Solutions for Winning the Future. Leaving Fox in 2013, Gingrich co-hosted Crossfire and became a commentator on CNN, and in 2015 he rejoined Fox News.
He is the author of 40 books, including Lessons Learned the Hard Way (1998), Winning the Future: A 21st Century Contract with America (2005), Rediscovering God in America (2006), To Save America: Stopping Obama’s Secular-Socialist Machine (2010), Understanding Trump (2017), Trump vs. China: Facing America’s Greatest Threat (2019), and The Trump Effect: Building a Better American Future (2020). He has also co-authored international thrillers and an alternative history series on the Civil War and World War II.
Former Co-chair of the Task Force on United Nations Reform, he is the founder of the Center for Health Transformation, a former member of the Defense Policy Board and the Terrorism Task Force for the Council on Foreign Relations, and a distinguished visiting scholar and professor at the National Defense University.
