WASHINGTON - GOP presidential contender Newt Gingrich, the cheerful candidate, Thursday proposed a viable plan to construct a death star, an initiative he says will power shift the economy into overdrive and allow the U.S. to extend its Manifest Destiny policy over the universe.

"The $8.5 quadrillion spending required to make the death star a reality will put the US economy in the global fast lane with triple-digit economic expansion," extolled Gingrich. "Further, this kind of defense spending is exactly the type of federal spending that the founding fathers had in mind when they wrote the Constitution.

"What I like best about the death star initiative," beamed the former Speaker of the House, noted for his huge ideas, "is that it's the natural next step of President Reagan's Star Wars initiative that he launched not long after dementia set in. It's crazy brilliant."

Gingrich cited a recent study by Lehigh University students to support his claim that construction of the death star is viable.

"Do you know how much $8.5 quadrillion is?" he asked. "It's 13,000 times spaceship Earth's GDP. Building a death star guarantees full employment for life, probably for as long as the planet will exist.

"And once it's built, we can all hop on board and set off for another earthly paradise, and if anything, or anyone, gets in our way, we'll zap 'em. An economy model death star - 140 kilometers in diameter - can vaporize a large, rock planet.

"But we're going for the Hummer model, 900 kilometers in diameter. We'll have the power to blast entire solar systems back to the Big Bang.

"And we're not just building one of these babies, either. We have the raw materials to build two billion death stars.

"And the employment opportunities are endless. The Hummer class of death star has a crew of 2.7 million, including 500,000 cooks producing all the ethnic foods of earth, but also all the foods that we encounter on other worlds. The dessert selections alone are mind boggling.

"But it is imperative we get started immediately. The Lehigh report estimates that it will take 833,315 years to produce the steel for just one death star. So, I'm recommending fast tracking the death star and forming an alliance with China and India to expedite production of the steel needed.

"In return, we will employ cooks from those countries for the ride, which is sure to be more fun than driving to the beach for summer vacation."

Asked if he had thought of a name for the first death star, Gingrich smiled: "The first death star will be the SS Callista for two reasons: 1) she's da bomb, and 2) her hairdo is the original inspiration for my latest big idea."