Newt Gingrich Blames Nation's Problems On Unemployed People

Newt Gingrich, who is currently mulling a presidential bid in 2012, said at a political event in South Carolina on Thursday that most of America's problems can be blamed on the "leftist news media," Hollywood, tenured academics, overpaid federal workers, and unemployed people.

"I'm opposed to giving people money for doing nothing," he told the crowd of 250 cheering GOP activists in a state with a 10.6 percent unemployment rate.

The Los Angeles Times reports:

Comparing unemployment benefits to welfare, a system he worked with former President Clinton to overhaul in the mid-1990s, Gingrich asserts that the country spent $134 billion last year on unemployment compensation "and got nothing for it." Instead of wasting money "paying people to do nothing for 99 weeks," he would make job training mandatory for anyone getting an unemployment check.

There are five jobless people for everyone one job opening right now, making it difficult for even the most industrious job hunters to find work, yet Gingrich's comments echo the sentiments of a number of GOP Congressmen who believe unemployment benefits make people lazy. Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), for instance, said jobless benefits mean people are "encouraged not to go look for work," and Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told South Carolina's News 13: "We can't just keep paying people to stay at home."

Comments

[Jefferson Vickers]

06:07 PM on 02/16/2011

Does anyone remember what this is called Unemployment Insurance? With the word insurance it implies premiums, WHICH THEY PAID.

[AbeMartin]

11:48 AM on 01/22/2011

And, exactly, what does Newt do for a living?  What is his source of income?  Does he own a business.  No. Does he teach at a university or college?  Uh.  No.  Does anyone (except conservative Billionaires0 actually buy his books.  Uh.  not enough to generate enough royalty to live on.  So, how does he survive?

Oh, right.  He's a FELLOW at the American Enterprise Institute and at the Hoover Institution, which channel corporate donations (i.e. Welfare for well-connected politicians) to him,  and that gets him invited to pontificate, bloviate, and flatulate on conservative talk shows. 

So, I guess he is right.  Unemployed people, like himself are problems in America.

[oilfield]

01:26 AM on 01/06/2011

i think folks should have to help rebuild americas infrastructure for their unemployment checks....maybe 20 hours a week while they are looking for a job.

[TedEjr]

04:49 PM on 01/10/2011

You shouldn't think. It is not your strong suit.

[oilfield]

05:52 PM on 01/10/2011

i'll try not to....but i feel i must to earn enough to pull my share of the wagon....whats the problem with requiring someone to work for money? i can assume you are coming from the left as you are pretty rude.

[twhiting9275]

12:30 AM on 01/04/2011

And once again, HP tends to forget to post the WHOLE truth up there. Newt did blame the unemployed, but those are only SOME of the people he blamed. The "leftist news media" has most definitely played a role in this whole debacle, as has every politician, and every tenured individual. The unemployed, well, if they're still unemployed after months and months of "job searching", then clearly, they need to be taken off the government's check and forced to take whatever job they can find.

I can buy a few month's unemployment, but there's jobs to be had, and yes, you DO have to actually get off your fat tail end and look for them, but they DO exist.

[sick of stupid]

10:38 PM on 01/04/2011

Care to share where you are seeing all these jobs? and any advice for a person who applies for everyone they see, but never even gets a call back? Please by all means share your wisdom!

[oilfield]

01:25 AM on 01/06/2011

what city are you in?

[Jefferson Vickers]

06:11 PM on 02/16/2011

You live in a town of 5 people?

[JoeBoy254]

12:19 AM on 01/04/2011

Newt would never know, since he hasn't had a real job in years.........

[gypsy508]

12:50 PM on 01/03/2011

Getting money for doing nothing? Newt is an expert in that area for certain.

[Arts4u]

11:02 PM on 01/01/2011

The close of 2010: The Lost Decade:

"The number of very long term unemployed was 15 times as high as it was in 2000 at the close of the prior decade when US labor markets were operating close to full employment­.

The 15 million official unemployed were accompanie­d by 9 million underemplo­yed, 6 million hidden unemployed (wanting work but no longer actively looking), and 10 million malemploye­d college graduates working in jobs that do not require a college degree. Over 40 million American adults were facing one of these four labor market problems in 2010, the largest number by far in the past 50 years."

From here: http://www­.huffingto­npost.com/­andrew-sum­/ringing-o­ut-the-old­-year-_b_8­02711.html

[Geoulio Fransesco]

09:05 PM on 01/01/2011

Yes, Newt, we know you think that all of the poor and unemployed are perpetually lazy and completely undeserving of help. God help us all if you get elected.

[comment from grandpa]

07:55 PM on 01/22/2011

I really want him to sit down elucidate his vision of America. I'll bet it "ain't purty"................

[fortressfountain]

05:41 PM on 01/01/2011

If the republicans want to save money they can give up pensions and vacations.

[Jefferson Vickers]

06:12 PM on 02/16/2011

they gave up working why not those too!

[fortressfountain]

09:44 AM on 01/01/2011

It is one thing to be unemployed because of choice. It is a different issue when the politicans toot how this country is such a free market by giving tax breaks to corporations to ship jobs overseas.
If there was a supply of available work and jobs going unfilled he may have a point.
Instead the politicans will give tax breaks to companies and encourage them to hire for a few hours a week.
The only reason the politicans are wining is because the mega corporations are wining they cannot collect tax breaks because people do not want the 10 hour a week jobs.

[llozano]

09:20 PM on 12/31/2010

What I find amazing is that he got cheered for that comment. He should have been pelted with tomatoes and tarred and feathered then driven out of town on a rail. Is this the level of thinking among the Republicans?

[comment from grandpa]

07:56 PM on 01/22/2011

In a word................yes

[MrOctober]

03:18 AM on 12/31/2010

Those sneaky unemployed, they worked for years on a regular basis, just waiting for Wall Street Fraud to crash the ecnomy to give them the opportunity to grab that sweet unemployment. To have no job, and collect 1/2 your old salary and lose your health insurance? It's what dreams are made of!

[PhillyQuaker]

01:47 PM on 01/03/2011

Yep we unemployed over 50 are especially are whooping it up out here-- being passed over for merely being "too old." Sad.

[lawdini]

04:46 PM on 02/17/2011

Here here.

[fortressfountain]

08:20 PM on 12/30/2010

Anytime a company wants to outsource overseas or layoff they should be responsible for finding the person a job or paying them until they find a job.
The people should be responsible for losing a job?
Yet when a company or corporation fail they get bailed out by the taxpayer.

[DSOTM]

07:59 PM on 12/30/2010

Newt blames unemployed people but not the companies that made them unemployed.

Priceless.

[trickjames23]

07:34 PM on 12/30/2010

Somebody must have told him that unemployed people aren't allowed to vote...

[comment from grandpa]

07:57 PM on 01/22/2011

That will be the next step...............