Newt Gingrich on Wednesday called for major reforms of the Federal Reserve while refusing to discuss his campaign's latest spate of problems.
Speaking to the Atlanta Press Club, the former Georgia congressman and speaker of the U.S. House said he would not "answer any process questions" about his troubled campaign but would instead focus only on issues facing the country.
Still, he said, that in July 2007, then-U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton was the front-runner for the Democratic nomination for president and former New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani was favored on the GOP side.
U.S. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., the eventual GOP nominee, "was out of money; his staff had left and everybody had written him off."
"And I'm not running to talk about the nuances of the campaign," he said. "I'm running because we have enormous problems."
Gingrich would not address revelations Tuesday of more staff resignations and reports of campaign financial problems.
The Associated Press reported that his two top fund raisers had resigned, joining most of his senior campaign staff in exiting the campaign -- which is said to be more than $1 million in debt. The Washington Post on Tuesday also revealed that Gingrich had a line of credit for up to $1 million at high-end jeweler Tiffany & Co. While Gingrich's campaign said he no longer owes Tiffany any money, it is the second such credit line the candidate has had with the company.
In his address to about 100 Atlanta Press Club and guests, Gingrich called for reform of the Federal Reserve and slammed President Barack Obama's regulatory policies.
Gingrich said the U.S. dollar has fallen in value since 2000, noting that one dollar is now only worth only 70 euro cents.
From crumbling housing prices to rising gasoline and grocery prices, Gingrich said the country cannot afford to continue on its current path.
"The jobs crisis is an historic national crisis and the Obama Administration has only made it worse by pursuing job-killing policy after job killing policy," Gingrich said.
Gingrich offered a set of initiatives he said he'd introduce if he's elected in 2012. They include eliminating the capital gains tax and the estate tax, reducing the federal corporate tax rate to 12.5 percent and allowing businesses to expense 100 percent investment in new equipment.
Gingrich also vowed to block any proposed tax increase.
In a question-and-answer session following his speech, he elaborated on his earlier point that federal regulations are stifling small banks. Told that Georgia continues to lead the nation in bank failures, Gingrich said he isn't against all banking regulations.
"But that's kind of like saying do you think we ought to have some highway rules," he said. "Yes, I think we ought to have a speed limit. Do you think we should have a bureaucrat sitting in every car? I'm for some regulation. I'm against crazy."
He also briefly touched again on his campaign's problems. Asked how voters could trust him to manage the economy when he's struggling to manage his own campaign, Gingrich said there was simply a difference in philosophy between him and his former staff.
"I am very different than normal politicians," Gingrich said. "And normal [political] consultants found that very hard to deal with. We made a mistake. We tried to be normal, we tried to bring in regular political consultants -- very smart people. It turned out they couldn't have done it."
Gingrich told another questioner that his campaign "will be a very grassroots-oriented campaign, based on the Internet. It will be a very inexpensive campaign."
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