Former Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-GA) appeared on Sean Hannity’s TV show last night, and gave his prediction for what a Republican Congress elected in 2010 will do to fight President Obama on health care: Shut down the government (again).
“My prediction is you’re going to get a Republican Congress in 2010 in the election. They’re going to come in and they’re going to refuse to fund any of these new offices. And they’re just kind — they won’t pass the appropriations,” said Gingrich. “Then in 2012, you get a new president. And I think probably in February of 2013, they repeal the entire bill. Replace the good parts. Because there are some things — out of 2600 pages, there are probably 200 pages that are pretty good.”
This sounds a lot like Gingrich’s actual playbook during the GOP’s first two years in the majority, when he shut down the government twice during political battles with Bill Clinton. The end result was that the public blamed the GOP for the impasse, and Clinton’s approval ratings went back up. Clinton was easily re-elected in 1996 by running as a check against the Gingrich Congress, though at the same time the GOP was able to just hold on to its House majority and even gain two seats in the Senate.
