Washington, D.C.–Republican presidential candidate and former House Speaker Newt Gingrich called for "hard money with a very limited Federal Reserve" at the Republican presidential debate in New Hampshire on Tuesday. Gingrich is the third candidate to take this position. Herman Cain endorsed the gold standard at the American Principles Project Palmetto Freedom Forum in South Carolina last month and Ron Paul, who has been steadily advocating it for much of his career, raised it at last night’s debate.
"Speaker Gingrich is one of the thought leaders of the conservative movement and Republican field," said Jeffrey Bell, policy director at American Principles Project and head of its Gold Standard 2012 initiative. "His stance on monetary reform is a clear-cut signal for the remaining candidates in addition to Mr. Cain and Congressman Paul to get behind a gold-backed dollar as the only way to restore prosperity to our economy and fiscal discipline to Congress. It is by far the most urgent economic change we need."
As it has emerged as a position among some of the presidential candidates, the gold standard has gained mounting national support. At the Fox News debate before the Iowa straw poll in August it was called a “top Tea Party goal” by one of the debate panelists. American Principles Project and the Heritage Foundation are two policy organizations that have hosted conferences on monetary policy and the gold standard, with several others putting on events in the next six weeks.
The Gold Standard 2012 project is an initiative of American Principles in Action, which works to reach out to lawmakers to advance legislation that will put the gold standard at the forefront of economic issues in the 2012 election.
