Former U.S. House speaker in Oklahoma

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Tuesday for a peacetime tax cap and abolition of the death<br>tax, and urged Congress to "double the federal research and development

Tuesday, April 11th 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) -- Former U.S. House Speaker Newt Gingrich called Tuesday for a peacetime tax cap and abolition of the death
tax, and urged Congress to "double the federal research and development budget" and revamp America's health-care system.

"It's a different world. It has a different set of rules," Gingrich said in a speech at the National Cowboy Hall of Fame. "We live in an age of transition. If we work at it, we can turn it into an age of possibilities."

Gingrich, a Republican who served in Congress for 20 years and was speaker from 1995 to 1999, said advances in telecommunications and technology, especially computer technology, will accelerate changes in the delivery of health care.

"We're actually only about a fifth of the way into the information changes that we're going to see in our lifetime," said Gingrich, who runs an Atlanta-based communications and
management-consulting group.

He said travelers become impatient when they have to wait as little as 19 seconds to pull money from their checking accounts with an automatic teller machine in a city hundreds of miles from their home.

"Does this give you some idea of why waiting 123 days to pay an insurance bill isn't going to work?" he said.

"We don't have a health-care system today. We have a politi-system," one designed and run by politicians, Gingrich said.

He envisioned a day when patients will make appointments with their physicians by e-mail and said the current system will disappear in 10 or 12 years because it is too complicated to
sustain.

Gingrich also said the Internet will give average Americans more purchasing power. He said computers are already being used for
tax-free shopping to get the best prices for such services as airline tickets

Describing himself as a fiscal conservative, Gingrich drew applause from a crowd of several hundred people when he called for
a 25 percent cap on taxation during peacetime from federal, state and local sources.

He drew more applause when he called for elimination of the death tax, which he called "profoundly wrong."

Gingrich also called for creation of personal social security accounts for Americans, a new emphasis on literacy and math and science education, and the application of new cost-cutting technologies to the military and intelligence communities.

"We ought to take the Pentagon and turn it into a triangle," he said.

On other issues, Gingrich said the nation is "wallowing at the national level" and needs strong leadership.

"I think if Governor (George W.) Bush wins, you'll see us move forward," Gingrich said of the Republican candidate from Texas.

"I think if Vice President (Al) Gore wins, you'll see us move in a different direction."

Gingrich also said the government should taunt Cuban leader Fidel Castro into calling for democratic elections and let him know "he is the last dinosaur in the Western Hemisphere."

He also questioned those who want to return 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to Cuba to live with his father. The boy was rescued after his mother died while trying to flee Cuba in a raft and has been in the custody of relatives in Miami during an international custody
dispute.

"You're going to send him back to an island where people routinely risk their lives on rafts to get out of," Gingrich said.

His speech was sponsored by the College of Business Administration at Oklahoma State University.