Newt's War on Poor Children

And Newt is the smartest guy in the room--of course that's a room full of Republicans!

This is a great oped by Charles Blow. Mr. Blow references surveys and facts when presenting his case against the comments of Gingrich. It seems that most Republicans enjoy and insist on presenting their points without referencing facts or studies. I believe that most of the Republican audience of these candidates don't slightly care whether or not something is factual as presented by their candidates. As long as it appeals the their anger against the vast middle class, then they are satisfied without the need for facts. In my opinion, this is one of the saddest moments in American history. Democracy is based on the need of a very informed electorate, even though the founders felt that should be male land owners over 21. What is also sad is that Gingrich is the most intelligent of the Republican candidates, which speaks volumes considering how he often presents arguments devoid of facts or morals. I continue to remember days back in the '50s when their were intelligent Republican candidates and elected officials. I think most of the reason the Republican candidates have such a disrespect of facts is that their core audience of Republican voters seem to hate facts. This very same group of voters is actually being manipulated to support things such as rejecting Democratic health care laws and proposals which they need very much. The list of examples goes on and on.

Let's have a look at Newt's daily calendar for the past 20 years and see how many Mondays he has gotten out of bed early to go to "work."

Let's also look very closely where his loot comes from.

newt [noot, nyoot] noun
1.
any of several brilliantly colored salamanders of the family Salamandridae, especially those of the genera Triturus and Notophthalmus, of North America, Europe, and northern Asia.
2.
any of various other small salamanders.

Slang Dictionary
newt definition: noun
a stupid person; a dull and uninteresting person.

What else do you need to know?

Newt really shows his qualities for being elected president. You can find research to back up any idea but if you have worked with poor kids and understood how they are beaten down each day yet still want to succeeed if given the chance you will know that Newt's words are being proven wrong across the country. Maybe not in the huge numbers but one young person at a time who gets a mentor, is given a boost to their self-esteem each by a teacher or adult who cares, gets a chance to participate in a special program this is where it counts. One child at a time who learns that he can get a fair shake and have a chance at success!! Each of us can be that one person who makes a change in a poor kid's life. Statistic are not set in stone, poverty is not set in stone and with today's economny - how many successful, middle class individuals are finding themselves on the brink of poverty. I know, I am one of them - but I know that tomorrow can be different. This is what those who live in poverty need to be shown!

Newt the Narcissist has done it again. He has pushed others down to build himself up. Way to go, Newt, baby. Who are you going to turn on next, orphans? widows?

what a sorry excuse for a human being this man is.. pandering to the lowest of the low in a whacked out party of crazy teapots, he's just ginning 'em up for the next round. Not content to have his 15 minutes of fame, he wants an extra hour or two, so he fans the flames of hatred, bigotry, arrogance and hypocricy with his own special take on "the facts". Hard to believe he is currently the "front runner" for the GOP. Have all lost their souls?

Of course, those really well-off children in really well-off neighborhoods all have habits of working and have people around them who work. HARD! Except, of course, those who have never had to work and who never will have to "work". The parking lot at our local high school is full of cars that I'd bet were bought by mom & dad and the kids are on an allowance.

If Hypocrisy and ignorance were painful this jerk would qualify for a vicodin prescription!

Sure there are poor kids who don't stick with a job, but they're hardly alone. The "lazy intern"--almost always a relatively well-off kid who can afford to work without pay--has become such a standard feature of certain workplaces that he/she's given birth to an SNL skit. Most people who write about these things have spent very little (or no) time doing the kind of repetitive and menial work that Newt sees as an "opportunity" for poor children. When we do, it's as a summer job that we know will soon end. But a poor kid from a poor neighborhood could reasonably assume that this is all the future holds for him/her; under those circumstances, I would figure out a good excuse for not showing up for work.

Truly a terrifying prospect: President Newt Gingrich.
Hold your nose if you must, but this voting season vote pure Democrat(ic) & hold the Blue Dogs please. Last nights party line vote that will raise poor/middle class taxes while softening the burden of the wealthy should be all the proof that even the sane of the Republican party need to rebel against the party of and for the 1%. Surely there are still some sane Republicans???? ?

Yeah, just like that poor Paris Hilton and Tamara Ecclestone - deprived childhood so no sense of a fair day's work for a fair day's pay. Of course, you could do a Chelsea Clinton and marry an investment banker/private equity fund 'entrepreneur'.

The poor kids he talks about are a lot like him, ACCEPT Newt shows up for work lies,cheats, and steals and gets paid for it. Only a self centered, republican narcissist would listen to anything he has to say.

GOP stands for Greedy One Percent!

NEVER EVER VOTE REPUBLICAN!!

There really are such poor kids, though Gingrich's sweeping claims are trash. The progressive approach to them is to help lift them out of poverty, and give them better living environments and education. By Gingrich's own logic) they will then achieve a work ethic and become contrhibuting members of society. The Republican approach, on ythe other hand, is to leave them in poverty and ignorance, and get them behind bar as soon as possible.

Where does Newt Gingrich come up with these myths? Has he ever met a "really poor" person who has to scramble to work hard from morning to night to keep body and soul together? There are hundreds of millions of them in this country. And our systems are set up to make it very difficult for people who have little to do anything--drive a car, find a job, interact with their children's teachers, find medical and dental care. Let him spend a day in the shoes of one "really poor" person and find out what hard work foraging and scraping by "really" takes. I have worked for years with many people who have nothing and have found them perhaps not always sophisticated or skilled, but almost always committed to take care of their families. Newt Gingrich is not only callous, mean-spirited and arrogant. He is ignorant of reality. And he doesn't even know it.

mermaid 19 is correct. education of the right sort is the key. i worked most of my 33 years as a teacher with poor mostly black students in miami. i have just finished a book that may change elementary education forever. i am in the process of field testing it with today's teachers. my method of teaching reading can get a child who is reading pre primer to literate in ten hours.(no phonics). my methods of teaching math led me to runner up for dade county math teacher of the year in 1986. the key is education. many of my ex students are lawyers and doctors now. all they needed was the self esteem that is only gotten by performing well. they got that and that was all they needed. so newt, two fingers to you.....

AH, and let's not forget how Nebulous, Nefarious, Numb-Nuts Newt has treated his wives. He divorced his first wife while she was in a hospital being treated for cancer. That goes a long way to the conclusion that Newt has (1) no respect for women (2) no respect for average Americans or poor Americans and(3) not a care in the world about our soldiers dying in far-off wars. Bottom line: I wouldn't trust Newt to pick up my garbage and I think he's an escapee from a septic tank (just think what floats in there.) Bottom, bottom line: a turd is a turd even if it is "highly educated."

I think this Mr. Nuwt boy has just cut off his dingaling!

I wish I could be PC about what Newt said, I'm certainly not a fan of his, but unfortunately he is speaking of an underculture that does exist. I don't know if I agree with his answer to this problem, you can't go into someone's home and tell them to buy their kid a book or them them to monmitor their kid's homework or to be involved in their kid's life and education, but something needs to be done to help this underclass to become part of the mainstream.

I hate to say it but I noticed some patterns with republicans:

They have the idea that I got mine so screw everyone else. They claim to be the religious right, but they want to make children slaves, rich people richer, end freedom of speech, and trample all over the middle class. Some vote against their own best interests, and have no ability to think for themselves.

Why do they hate helping others? Why do they call unemployment... money for doing nothing, when people paid into the system? Why are they so prejudice against anyone who isnt just like them? Because they dont seem to have a conscience, not all but the ones posting here seem to be very hard on anyone who cant do what they could do, or didnt have the opportunities they had. So their thinking of people who grew up in not the greatest of circumstances is, to make them child laborers because some multi millionaire thinks they dont have a good work ethic...well duh!!

As much as I hated to say all this its what I observed from the republicans on this forum.

Arent sweeping generalizations just grand?

I love the picture of Gingrich at the head of this article. I understand that in Britain, the hand signal he is giving is not "V for victory", but "F--k you and your mother, too".

Any Brits out there want to comment?

Working parents struggling on poverty-level incomes are far better role models and exemplars of a work ethic than CEOs of investment banks who have made billions through shadow banking schemes and mortgage scams. "Loot Grinch-rich" is amazingly obtuse if he truly believes what he has said abour poor communities and the people in them--amazingly obtuse or just one more rotten example of Social Darwinist crap parading as serious social analysis. Every humanly decent individual with a modicum of common sense and goodwill should want to piss on the grave of William Graham Sumner, the execrable lout who first came uo with the Social Darwinist notion.

“Start with the following two facts: Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they literally have no habit of showing up on Monday. They have no habit of staying all day. They have no habit of ‘I do this and you give me cash’ unless it’s illegal.”

Given that he is an a**hole of epic proportions and no one I want to be president, and given he has all the tact of a charging Rhino I have to say this: He's right. Not for everyone maybe, but what kind of naive twits are we if we refuse to see there are people out there who need role models? If what you see is unemployment and hopelessness, where are you going to learn how to do differently? If we want to solve poverty it has to be through mentoring and education and giving people work early in life. It's his tactless way of saying it, including calling in a stereotype dead in job like being a janitor. Being a janitor or housekeeper - which was incidentally how I put myself through my B.S., it a necessary and useful job, but it calls to mind the 40's and 50's when even a college educated black person could get no other job because of employment discrimination.

There are many working poor and working people with no medical insurance. My family worked more than one job each. We were still uninsured. We were still poor. My family worked harder and longer days than most people in Congress. Don't just base poverty on unemployed on unemployment numbers and work ethics on income. In my experience in teaching, I found the kids from poor families to be the ones more likely to be working in fast-food restaurants and at low-paying jobs because they needed the money. They didn't have time for extra-credit and enrichment projects.They were often tired and sleepy from working the night before. The richer students were enjoying the extra-curricula r activities the poor students could afford. He who acquates poverty with not working is naive and does not have an understanding of what is going on in the United States. To take it further, if what Mr. Guingrich is saying is true, wouldn't it also mean the women who have husbands to support them and are homemakers do not model work skills? And those who are rich and don't have to work - aren't their kids lacking a knowledge of work skills, too? My father and his brother were both taken from school and put to work full-time in the mines at age l3 because his widowed mother needed the money. His lungs were ruined. That's why there are child labor laws.

Just eliminate the index finger in the picture you show of Newt Gangrene and you have a perfect picture of his attitude toward us all and what he intends to do if elected!

Scrooge " Are there now work houses! Are there no prisions"