Gingrich unveils new Contract with America

WASHINGTON, Sept. 29 (UPI) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich, bidding to goose his Republican presidential nomination bid, released a new "Contract with America" Thursday.

Posted on Gingrich's Web site, the revised contract would, among other things, repeal the healthcare reform law, overhaul the tax code and reform Medicare and Social Security.

"The scale of the challenge and the intensity of the opposition require that we approach a 21st Century Contract with America with a much more profound and serious strategy than the original 1994 Contract with America," Gingrich said, referring to the manifesto developed when Republicans swept into the majority in the House and Senate.

Gingrich said the new contract has four parts:

-- Legislative proposals to shift America "back to job creation, prosperity, freedom and safety."

-- Executive orders ready to be signed on Inauguration Day "to immediately transform the way the executive branch works."

-- A training program for transition teams and appointees "who will lead the shift back to constitutional, limited government."

-- A "nurturing of citizen involvement to help sustain grassroots support for change and help implement the change through 2021."

Citing the dismal economy and high unemployment he said are "killing" jobs and endangering national security, Gingrich said, "The 2012 election is not a political election in any normal sense of ambitious people competing for power within an accepted framework of values and principles. It is an historic election in which the outcome will potentially change the nature of America for generations to come."