Worst President Ever!

Cary: Gingrich co-authored DOMA, which as a liberally leaning person, I simply cannot support, as well as recently hearing him say that many child labor laws are “stupid” – I can’t even go any further with him at that point.

With what in the below observation do you disagree?

The comment came in response to an undergrad’s question about income equality during his talk at Harvard’s Kennedy School.

“This is something that no liberal wants to deal with,” Gingrich said. “Core policies of protecting unionization and bureaucratization against children in the poorest neighborhoods, crippling them by putting them in schools that fail has done more to create income inequality in the United States than any other single policy. It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods, entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid.

“You say to somebody, you shouldn’t go to work before you’re what, 14, 16 years of age, fine. You’re totally poor. You’re in a school that is failing with a teacher that is failing. I’ve tried for years to have a very simple model,” he said. “Most of these schools ought to get rid of the unionized janitors, have one master janitor and pay local students to take care of the school. The kids would actually do work, they would have cash, they would have pride in the schools, they’d begin the process of rising.”

He added, “You go out and talk to people, as I do, you go out and talk to people who are really successful in one generation. They all started their first job between nine and 14 years of age. They all were either selling newspapers, going door to door, they were doing something, they were washing cars.”

Unions would, of course, be royally PO’ed their union janitor membership would be cut down, ergo their dues. However most of us old timers had jobs when we were young that helped form a work ethic. This is the thrust of Newt’s comments on child labor laws.. that they make it prohibitive for the young to work. And it’s most especially a negative impact on the poor and minorities. As Hispanic CNN contributor, Ruben Navarrette wrote:

Talk to hugely successful people, Gingrich said, and most of them will say that they got an early start learning about jobs and responsibility and earning money for their labor. Tragically, that’s not happening with many young people today. Gingrich pointed out that, for instance, among African-American teenagers, the unemployment rate is a staggering 43%.

Now, you can spin a statistic like that one of two ways. You can say these unemployed black teenagers are helpless victims and the system is working against them. Or you can say that many of these teenagers are unemployable because no one ever taught them the skills necessary to hold down a job.

Gingrich thinks government should have a hand in creating a “pathway to work” so “people get in the work habit and learn the skills to be successful.”

Bravo for Newt. Politicians don’t usually speak this way, which is why so many of them have mastered the art of talking for hours without saying anything of importance. I can’t imagine Mitt Romney saying these things; he’s too busy telling people what they want to hear to tell them what they need to hear. This subject is as important as they come, and Gingrich deserves credit for kicking off the discussion, especially since he was sure to be pummeled for stating the obvious.

Here’s the obvious: Americans have lost their work ethic, and some never had one to lose. They grow up — or put more precisely, they’re raised — thinking of so many jobs as beneath them that they wake up one day not knowing how to do any job.

But of course Navarrette, who is one of those supposedly non-existent Hispanic conservatives, is assailed by forum members over at the DemocraticUnderground, calling him a “fake” Hispanic. Much like any black American who is conservative must be an “Uncle Tom.” You can read Navarette’s bio here, and make your own assumptions.

My point is, I don’t know where you got your story about Newt’s observations on getting the youth acclimated to a work ethic at early years. But he certainly isn’t suggesting putting them in factories for cheap Chinese labor wages and long hours… which is the impression I do think you have. Whether that’s because of the sources you pick for your news, or the fact you don’t read more indepth about the issue, is a question only you can answer. Maybe you used the NYTs, which characterized Newt’s suggestion as:

helping children bootstrap their way out of poverty by paying them to mop and clean their schools, and rolling back child labor laws that he has called “truly stupid.”

Woof… talk about a leap off the cliff, and into the abyss of stupid.

But my suggestion is that you look over the excerpts I put above, and tell me what is so very heinous and offensive. Then you might want to consider that not only will young kids have a choice to take that job and have some cash and work experience, but the money saved on education overhead from union janitors can be better used for what it should be used for… education and supplies.

As far as the DOMA… as POTUS he can’t do squat about that since any legislation has to originate in Congress and pass both chambers. The chances of Congress wasting their time on this, considering our economic woes, over the next term or two are likely zip, zero, and nada. So I think you’re overrating his personal beliefs about marriage being between a man and a woman. In fact, the majority of politicians that have held that office, and most in Congress, hold that same view. But truthfully, it ain’t high on the pecking order these days.