November 14, 2011

Newt Gingrich is Now Up to Bat

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Newt Gingrich is the latest anti-Romney, so I guess that means we all have to pretend to take him seriously for the next few weeks. Fine. Here is Aaron Blake telling us that Gingrich has nothing but contempt for the debt reduction supercommittee:

Gingrich also discussed his own competing debt-reduction plan. Included in the plan is expanded energy exploration, giving states the authority to determine welfare eligibility, expanding research to search for cures to diseases such as Alzheimer’s, and instituting the “Lean Six Sigma” management program in the federal government.

I estimate that all of these things put together would reduce the federal deficit by…..hardly anything. Hell, even Motorola, which invented the Six Sigma program, only estimates that it’s saved about $1 billion a year on $30 billion in revenues. That’s about 3%, which sounds almost worthwhile, but it could only conceivably apply to about two-thirds of government, which makes it about 2%. And it’s almost certainly wildly inflated even at that, so figure 1%. The rest of his stuff might add another 1% if we were really lucky.

So what else would he do? I headed over to his website to find out, but it turns out that Newt is such a cosmic thinker that he doesn’t bother his gray matter with petty details. Instead, he wants you to bother your gray matter with the petty details:

The 21st Century Contract with America is so large and covers so many changes necessary to get America back on the right track that it can’t possibly be developed by a small group. Instead, it will be developed with the help and support of the American people. 

So there you have it. Newt has provided the yeasty ideas to get you started, and now it’s up to you to come up with a few trillion in savings. Just be sure none of your ideas are stupid, because Newt really, really hates stupid ideas. What’s more, Blake informs us that Gingrich “has demonstrated a skilled grasp of policy minutiae,” and since Blake is an objective hard news reporter, I guess it must be true. So please offer Newt only your very finest ideas so he can cut-and-paste a plan of his own that will blow everyone’s mind. I can’t wait.

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WHO DOESN’T LOVE A POSITIVE STORY—OR TWO?

“Great journalism really does make a difference in this world: it can even save kids.”

That’s what a civil rights lawyer wrote to Julia Lurie, the day after her major investigation into a psychiatric hospital chain that uses foster children as “cash cows” published, letting her know he was using her findings that same day in a hearing to keep a child out of one of the facilities we investigated.

That’s awesome. As is the fact that Julia, who spent a full year reporting this challenging story, promptly heard from a Senate committee that will use her work in their own investigation of Universal Health Services. There’s no doubt her revelations will continue to have a big impact in the months and years to come.

Like another story about Mother Jones’ real-world impact.

This one, a multiyear investigation, published in 2021, exposed conditions in sugar work camps in the Dominican Republic owned by Central Romana—the conglomerate behind brands like C&H and Domino, whose product ends up in our Hershey bars and other sweets. A year ago, the Biden administration banned sugar imports from Central Romana. And just recently, we learned of a previously undisclosed investigation from the Department of Homeland Security, looking into working conditions at Central Romana. How big of a deal is this?

“This could be the first time a corporation would be held criminally liable for forced labor in their own supply chains,” according to a retired special agent we talked to.

Wow.

And it is only because Mother Jones is funded primarily by donations from readers that we can mount ambitious, yearlong—or more—investigations like these two stories that are making waves.

About that: It’s unfathomably hard in the news business right now, and we came up about $28,000 short during our recent fall fundraising campaign. We simply have to make that up soon to avoid falling further behind than can be made up for, or needing to somehow trim $1 million from our budget, like happened last year.

If you can, please support the reporting you get from Mother Jones—that exists to make a difference, not a profit—with a donation of any amount today. We need more donations than normal to come in from this specific blurb to help close our funding gap before it gets any bigger.

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