Ron Paul In 2005: 'I Agree With Newt Gingrich' On The WTO

NEW YORK -- The political world was abuzz Tuesday morning after the Wall Street Journal reported on an April 2006 memo in which an organization run by former House Speaker Newt Gingrich praised the health care plan Mitt Romney had implemented in Massachusetts.

ABC News quickly ran its own version of the story, based on the same memo. Several websites, including The Huffington Post, followed. By the time the Associated Press got around to churning out its own copy, the Gingrich campaign had responding, saying the former speaker's views were "old news that has been covered already."

The fact that Gingrich once praised health care reform built around the individual mandate is hardly a shocking revelation. He's been a much more ardent proponent of the policy than Romney. Nor, for that matter, is it all that surprising that he praised the former Massachusetts Governor in the past. Prior to the 2012 campaign, these candidates did, at various times, work together and compliment one another. Indeed, as one reader pointed out, even Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) once had nice things to say about Gingrich, a politician he has basically labeled, during this campaign, as antithetical to conservative values.

Speaking on the House floor in June 2005 in favor of legislation that would withdraw the United States from the World Trade Organization, Paul read from testimony Gingrich had given to the House Ways and Means Committee in June 1994, warning against transferring U.S. power to an international institution.

"I agree with Newt Gingrich on this, it was a huge transfer of power," Paul said. "I happen to believe it was an unconstitutional transfer of power and therefore we are now suffering the consequences because we have lost the prerogatives and control of our own trade policy."

The legislation that Paul was championing –- which declared that Congress was withdrawing its approval of the establishment of the WTO –- would go on to fail in the House of Representatives by a 86 to 338 vote. Its chief sponsor, at the time, was then-Rep. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.).

Gingrich had previously warned that Congress was "transferring from the United States at a practical level significant authority to a new organization." But unlike Paul, who has made criticism of the WTO and other international institutions a chief component of his policy platform, Gingrich was a supporter of the organization.

 

 

Comments

[l78lancer]

11:29 PM on 12/28/2011

So did Newt decide that he would turn against the WTO in 1994 when he discoverd that Clinton may have been for it? Well now that it's clear that Paul concurred with him in 2005, perhaps Newt will change his position again. After all, Newt has indicated that he can't exist in the same part of the universe with Paul. Newt was a hypocrite in 1994 just as he is today. Paul made the mistake of agreeing with someone whom he considered smart.

Paul's problem is that he doesn't know which Newt he actually agreed with.

[1differentdrummer]

05:43 AM on 12/28/2011

What does it take today? That's what they'll say today. Don't take them seriously though, nothing they say is to be taken as factual. These speeches and comments are like commercials delivered by pitchmen.

[Jackson Baer]

02:16 AM on 12/28/2011

Ron Paul will win Iowa and then either take New Hampshire or come in a strong second... yet he's not viable? It's funny how the media is claiming a Paul victory in Iowa will discredit the state but not if anyone else wins. It doesn't get much more hypocritical than that.

http://www.whatthehellbook.com/the-book/

[jc323]

03:43 AM on 12/28/2011

In New Hampshire he has to get by the black box electronic voting machines.

[TenaciousMutt]

11:45 PM on 12/27/2011

In this picture, Ron Paul looks like he represents the Lollipop Guild.

[sixtoes]

11:30 PM on 12/27/2011

The last paragraph of this article is confusing. It says although Gingrich said he did not support the WTO, he voted in favor of it. The link goes to the Congressional record of votes on that bill, which shows Gingrich voted yes. RP's name isn't on there at all(?)

[Vikingdave]

11:18 PM on 12/27/2011

Oh Ron. We hardly knew ye
http://www.politicalcartoons.com/cartoon/de081cc0-b48c-4b38-9f0d-3b24756edd2b.html

[Vikingdave]

10:49 PM on 12/27/2011

The way Paul is holding his hand, I think he and newt are discussing 2nd amendment rights.

[WomanforPaul]

10:00 PM on 12/27/2011

America Needs Ron Paul.

Ron Paul has had consistent policy positions from the start. The other candidates simply say what the voters want to hear. Ron Paul warned us about the housing bubble, the debt crisis, the collapse of the US dollar, the high employment and recessions; basically, the entire collapse of our economy. He is the only candidate who can get us out of our mess.

Ron Paul is a man who defends the constitution, civil liberties, peace and prosperity. Paul has the wisdom, foresight, honesty and integrity to be president.

Mitt Romney does not where he stands on any issue; Michelle Bachmann is just very angry; Rick Perry does not know very much; John Huntsman has worked for Democrats for many years; Rick Santorum is an extremist; and Newt Gingrich is philosophically unanchored, an unstable element, whom as Peggy Noonan, former Reagan speechwriter writes is a “human hand grenade who walks around with his hand on the pin, saying, Watch this!”.

America Needs Ron Paul.

[webwzrd]

11:10 PM on 12/27/2011

America needs Ron Paul if:

1) We want The Pill made illegal.
2) We want to be governed by corporations.
3) The coming Race Wars erupt early
4) We really like pollution.
5) We don't care about nuclear power.
6) We want snake oil sold as medicine.
7) We want poison in our food.
8) We want evolution taught as science
9) We want wild fluctuations in inflation/deflation
10) We trust that all men are angels, so government is not necessary.

[ntr721]

11:46 PM on 12/27/2011

Those are just some of his positions, and not the most harmful... This man is a real danger to our Nation.

[Doug Kittredge]

02:29 AM on 12/28/2011

point number one... null... http://www.dailypaul.com/180123/can-no-longer-support-ron-paul-morning-after-pill shall we go on...or do you wanna do your homework?

[Robson]

09:57 PM on 12/27/2011

I too am disappointed in this deceptive headline. Ron Paul did not support the WTO. Gingrich the puppet of the Wall St financier banker globalists did. BTW Obama also supports the WTO at USA expense.

[Brad Viar]

03:55 AM on 12/28/2011

The Huffington Post is a master of deceptive headlines because that's all most people read because most people are dumb.

[Trout007]

09:37 PM on 12/27/2011

Broken Clock nothing more.

[texasbvb]

08:19 PM on 12/27/2011

WTO and NAFTA are both bad ideas for the American worker and the American economy.

[Mover]

09:06 PM on 12/27/2011

Actually, they are good ideas that are badly managed by inept Administrations and self-centered congresses.

Other countries were buying our manufactured goods until they became prohibitively expensive due to the added expenses of higher corporate taxes and higher operating expenses due to union labor, fed induced inflation, EPA & OSHA requirements and a general random governmental failure to provide a climate for private sector growth due to failed ideologies (that are still in play).

[tnash26170]

09:42 PM on 12/27/2011

Baloney. Corporate America started shipping jobs out of the country because labor costs were too high, to countries such as China which did not care for the health and welfare of its people and which paid its people $2 per day. Is that the goal we should have been aiming for? Our private sector was doing just fine with all those regulations until greed set in. So you think OSHA is a bad idea, that workers should be at the whims of the corporate leaders? Do people like you really exist?

[webwzrd]

11:13 PM on 12/27/2011

Utter BS. Most of the products made by our outsourced labor are sold back to US. American business has conspired to transfer the wealth of our middle class to other countries, with them as the toll booth. They have made TRILLIONS on our trade deficit, largely because THEY CAUSED IT.

[Steelsil]

08:15 PM on 12/27/2011

It's really funny watching Republicans want to vote for Newtron on the grounds that Romney is a flip-flopper, as though Newtron weren't.  'Cons, your candidates are all con men or kooks - or both.  This is only natural when your philosophy is nothing but paranoia and selfishness.

[Mover]

09:26 PM on 12/27/2011

I have watched Newtron get things done while in congress. He knows how to negotiate with the dummicrats in congress.

I wouldn't normally call them (Democrats) names, but I liked "Newtron" so much that I had to play along.

[wowme]

07:08 PM on 12/27/2011

Sam Stein, big FAIL on this one

[OldTulsan]

06:11 PM on 12/27/2011

WTO is the global government that demands financial deregulation...

http://www.citizen.org/documents/FinanceReregulationFactSheetFINAL.pdf
To Rescue Main Street, We Need to Curb the WTO

"...Starti­ng in the late 1970s, the U.S. government and corporatio­ns pushed to redefine “finance” from a service that supports the real economy to a tradable commodity whose flow across borders should be uninhibite­d. Starting in the late 1980s, they successful­ly pushed for financial services to be included in “trade” negotiatio­ns, including those establishi­ng the World Trade Organizati­on (WTO). “The sector was truly unique in that respect, and there is little doubt within the trade policy community that financial sector support in the European Union and the United States was a determinin­g force in concluding the FSA [WTO Financial Services Agreement]­” notes a study posted on the WTO’s own website “Financial Services and the WTO: What Next?”

The WTO rules require deregulati­­on – and lock-in – of financial services that countries “liberaliz­­e” under these terms.

[snip]

For instance, the Glass-Stea­­gall Act created a firewall between commercial and investment banks to prevent the former from speculatin­­g with consumers’ savings. But the U.S.’ 1997 FSA commitment­­s noted an intent to change Glass-Stea­­gall to conform with WTO rules. The Gramm-Leac­­h-Bliley Act, which did so, passed in 1999 – the year the FSA went into effect....­­"

[Dewts]

06:07 PM on 12/27/2011

i love that picture.