Newt Gingrich and the Obama Administration’s Transparency

Newt Gingrich

Presidential hopeful Newt Gingrich is a polarizing figure in the GOP political field.

Director of the Center for Investors and Entrepreneurs John Berlau talks about Gingrich’s history with Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

“In last night’s Fox News debate, Gingrich made an egregious factual error that needs to be corrected. This would be his outrageous assertion that the nation’s thousands of credit unions are ‘government-sponsored enterprises’ akin to the disgraced Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. ‘Credit unions, co-ops, a lot of government-sponsored enterprises do a lot of good,’ Gingrich said in response to a question from Chris Wallace about Gingrich’s $1.6 million in consulting fees from Freddie Mac in 2002 and his public praise around that time of the ‘GSE model.’ But these entities Gingrich cited do not bear any resemblance to the ‘GSE model.’ In fact, credit unions are some of the least subsidized financial institutions.”

Transparency

Despite his promise to make government more transparent, President Obama has allowed his administration to fight Freedom of Information Act requests pertaining to climate change.

Research Associate David Bier comments.

“On top of this war on whistleblowers, the president has fought Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) requests. ‘Two years into its pledge to improve government transparency,’ the Associated Press reports, ‘the Obama administration handled fewer requests for federal records from citizens, journalists, companies and others last year even as significantly more people asked for information.’ In November, Obama’s Justice Department proposed a rule that would allow them to lie about the existence of documents that were of national security concern. Last month, CEI’s Chris Horner called the administration the ‘most secretive ever,’ and listed many ways in which under Obama, FOIA requests have been thwarted in the most underhanded ways.”