Gingrich on TV: Pledges new order

The Journal Sentinel staff

Washington In an unprecedented nationally televised address, House Speaker Newt Gingrich on Friday celebrated Republican accomplishments and pledged to "remake government" to create an "opportunity society."

Gingrich (R-Ga.) adopted a friendly, conciliatory tone as he sought to assure the nation that Republicans would protect Social Security, would work to improve Medicare and would not snatch school lunches away from children.

But he also said that "big battles" await in the drive toward a balanced federal budget, a goal that he said is essential to the well-being of the next generation. Gingrich said that everything but Social Security will be on the table as Congress looks to reduce the rate of growth of federal spending.

"The budget can be balanced even with the problems of the federal government," he said. "It can be balanced without touching a penny of Social Security and without raising taxes. . . . . We simply have to limit annual spending increases to about 3% between now and 2002." Rare Televised Speech

Leg 1 ends here The speech from Gingrich's Capitol Hill office was televised live on CBS, CNN and PBS. Gingrich aides said the networks had never before granted such an opportunity to anyone other than the president.

The speech was a fitting exclamation point to the period since the November elections in which Gingrich and the Republican House have dominated the news and driven the political debate, relegating President Clinton and the Senate to the background.

Gingrich's address came as Congress closed the chapter on the first 100 days of the first Republican majority in both the House and Senate in 40 years. The speaker said Republicans kept their word, as the House approved nine of the 10 items in the "Contract With America," the campaign manifesto that helped propel them into the majority.

"The contract's purpose has been to show that change is possible, that even in Washington you can do what you say you're going to do," he said.

In a style reminiscent of independent presidential candidate Ross Perot, Gingrich came armed with charts and props. He Leg 2 ends here displayed, for example, an antiquated vacuum tube that the federal air traffic control system still uses instead of a more efficient and powerful microchip.

Hitting many of the themes Republicans have voiced loudly in the last few months, Gingrich said that a smarter, leaner, less intrusive government would replace the current welfare system and transfer more power to the states.

Gingrich said Congress "must totally remake the federal government to change the way it thinks, the way it does business, the way it treats its citizens. After all, the purpose of changing government is to improve the lives of our citizens, to strengthen the future of our children, to make our neighborhoods safe and to build a better country. Government is not the end, it is the means." `The Wrong Cuts'

In the Democratic response, House Minority Leader Dick Gephardt (D-Mo.) and Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) said most of the Republican initiatives so far have helped the rich at the expense of the poor and middle class.

The Associated Press contributed to this report

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