Gingrich raises eyebrows with CBO comment

Presidential candidate Newt Gingrich had plenty to say about the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) on Monday while visiting New Hampshire. He argued that the CBO, which is intended to be nonpartisan, is anything but.

CONCORD, NEW HAMPSHIRE (Catholic Online) - Newt Gingrich referred to the CBO as "a reactionary socialist institution which does not believe in economic growth, does not believe in innovation and does not believe in data that it has not internally generated."

Gingrich's statement immediately drew fire from critics. Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former CBO Director and fellow Republican, referred to Gingrich's statement as "ludicrous." Stan Collender, a former Capitol Hill aide who work for the House and Senate budget committees said Gingrich "should know better, and he should be ashamed of himself."

Gingrich is calling for the dismantling of the CBO. He claims that the agency, "actually constrains what people are allowed to think."

Gingrich has used CBO data in the past, and throughout his career. However, his recent remarks seem to imply that he will do no such thing in the future.

Gingrich also slapped a socialist label on more than just the CBO. He also called Mitt Romney's health care mandates for both the state and federal levels to be "socialized medicine."

Gingrich also made proposals that few would argue are socialist. His most recent proposal is to allow younger workers, who still have several decades to go before accessing Social Security, to have an alternative.

Specifically, he says they should be allowed to choose private investment accounts which would encourage stock market investment and take pressure off the federal government.

The proposal would use pre-tax money taken from a citizens paycheck and, through establishing a personal retirement account, allow it to be invested in the market by the worker. It would be subject to market fluctuations and the control of the retirement account would rest with the worker . 

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