December 1, 2011 5:15 PM

Newt Gingrich: Poor kids don't work "unless it's illegal"

By
Sarah Huisenga
Topics
Campaign 2012

(Credit: AP)
DES MOINES, Iowa - After saying recently that child labor laws are "truly stupid," Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich on Thursday told an Iowa audience that children in poor neighborhoods have "no habits of working" nor getting paid for their endeavors "unless it's illegal."

"Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works," the former House speaker said at a campaign event at the Nationwide Insurance offices. "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."

Gingrich lately has been unspooling an urban policy, beginning with his comments at Harvard University last month when he discussed child labor laws. "It is tragic what we do in the poorest neighborhoods," Gingrich said then, "entrapping children in, first of all, child laws, which are truly stupid."

Children in poor neighborhoods, he said, should be allowed to serve as janitors in their schools to earn money and develop a connection to the school.

Child labor laws were adopted in the early part of the 20th century in response to widespread abuses in factories, where children were forced to work long hours for cheap wages. Groups like the National Child Labor Committee sprang up, and their efforts eventually culminated in adoption of free public education for all children and passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set federal standards for child labor.

Gingrich suggested that present laws are too rigid. "You have a very poor neighborhood. You have kids who are required under law to go to school," he said. "They have no money. They have no habit of work. What if you paid them part-time in the afternoon to sit at the clerical office and greet people when they came in? What if you paid them to work as the assistant librarian? And I'd pay them as early as is reasonable and practical," he said.

"I am prepared to find something that works, that breaks us out of the cycles we're involved in right now, and finding a way for poor children to learn how to work and learning how to have money that they've earned honestly is an integral part of that," Gingrich told about 400 people, mostly employees, in the Nationwide cafeteria.

Also at the event, he became the second GOP presidential candidate to sign a pledge declaring support for the construction of a fence along the entire U.S. border with Mexico by the end of 2013. Rep. Michele Bachmann, R-Minn., has also signed the document by a group called Americans for Securing the Borders.

"We will have absolute control of the border," Gingrich said, adding that as president he would suspend federal regulations that get in the way and would divert half of 23,000 homeland security employees in the Washington area to the Southern border.

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  • Sarah Huisenga

    Sarah Huisenga is covering the Newt Gingrich campaign for CBS News and National Journal.

Add a Comment See all 506 Comments
by szold February 2, 2012 8:17 AM EST
Newt Gingrich you have no clue of what life is like growing up poor. Thank You Newt for solidifying my decision to not vote for you.
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by bjdayan January 18, 2012 4:23 PM EST
You are twisting Newt's words and missing an important point in this discussion about what young people need, particularly low-income teens. Newt Gingrich points out that poor children benefit when taught real-life job skills during their K-12 years. Change K-12 curriculum so our children earn their Associate Degree by age 18—legal adulthood. Our education system cripples poor children the most by delaying their ability to become self-sufficient and earn money. We can reduce high school drop out rates, teen social problems and poverty by focusing on marketable job skills at an early age to enable low-income kids to contribute to their family income sooner. Many of today's "kids" are totally out-of-sync with normal life-stage development because they are dependent on Mommy and Daddy until their late twenties and thirties still attending college. Focus more on vocational training in K-12 so young people learn how to support themselves and not acquire a dependency orientation in the first place!
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by Perhapsnofence February 17, 2012 7:35 AM EST
Twisting the words spoken? "Really poor children in really poor neighborhoods have no habits of working and have nobody around them who works. So they 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."
I fail to see how words could be twisted in this manner. Again, I know parents who work and support their families-academically and financially who don't have a great income and they certainly DO NOT have their children do illegal thing or teach them how to do illegal things but INSIST they stay in school and work honestly.
by baghdadroz December 20, 2011 12:54 PM EST
What! Does he realize that the current Speaker of the House (Boehner) was crying emotionally (nothing new to him) about his poverty stricken youth and how he worked his way up to his current position? Untold young people have worked their way through college, trying to make something of themselves, including myself. Studies have shown that a majority of military recruits are from lower middle to lower class backgrounds who join from both patriotism and to get the GI Bill to get educations to become upwardly mobile. I was a teen-aged single mother living in assisted housing and joined the Army at 19 and my high scores qualified me to go to LVN school. Then I went to college in my spare time to become an RN and got promoted to officer and was sent to military training to became a physician assistant. All legal, thank you very much. What. A. Doosh. It's called the American dream, you beady-eyed, mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging, spittle-spraying, beetle-browed Trogodyte.
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by Perhapsnofence December 9, 2011 8:33 AM EST
It's interesting that he criticizes the very people who have paid in part for his estimated $181,400 wage ( wage paid to Speaker of the House in the year 2000- He left in 1999)- see http://www.legistorm.com/member_of_congress_salaries.html
I know children who's parents struggle to make ends meet AND have a very strong work ethic who make about 10-15 percent of what he did; insist that their children work hard at HOMEWORK to LEARN to READ and WRITE to MAKE DECISIONS for themselves so they can have what they want HONESTLY.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON this man deserves to represent ANYONE in THIS COUNTRY.
Reply to this comment
by Perhapsnofence December 9, 2011 8:03 AM EST
It's interesting that the very people who have paid in part for his estimated $181,400 wage ( wage paid to Speaker of the House in the year 2000- He left in 1999)- see http://www.legistorm.com/member_of_congress_salaries.html
can be oh so critical of systems and people. I know children who's parents struggle to make ends meet AND have a very strong work ethic who make about 10-15 percent of what he does; insist that their children work hard at HOMEWORK to LEARN to READ and WRITE to MAKE DECISIONS for themselves so they can have what they want HONESTLY.
THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO REASON this man deserves to represent ANYONE in THIS COUNTRY.
Reply to this comment
by nefranqui1 December 8, 2011 1:59 PM EST
Every single one of these so called "elected officials" needs some supernatural guidance. Some are making **** poor decisions.. and we are letting them! Time to really do our homework and stop the eenry-minee-miney-mo at the ballot box! Newt aint to astute!!!

Lawd Jesus we have elected complete morons! Maybe this will show the American people that allowing these so called representative into these position have decayed the fiber of our democratic system and we are to blame for being so complacent and not making them tow the line and be accountable for what they "do" say and promise....We need the sandman in both houses(a la Apollo Theater) to bring the hook and clear the joint out!
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by cadams2011 December 8, 2011 11:34 AM EST
I think Newt showed his true colors with this insanely racist comment. This country does not need his kind of thinking. Instead of having kids clean toilets and mop the floor in school how about giving them more educational programs, arts and literature, to show them what the world can offer outside of their poor environment. This man has no morals and should not even think about leading this country.
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by mrbucket2 December 7, 2011 10:02 PM EST
This guy is as dumb as can be. (there's a song there somewhere, lol)
He is so far out of reality makes his a*s sqeak.
And I suppose the kids in the rich neighborhoods work too. I mean, mom and dad can buy them cars, cell phones, clothes, food, etc, but I think that goes on until their about 35 years old, then uh oh.
Guess he's not looking for the black vote, or any other minorities vote.
Mr Grinch, you need to live in the ghetto, for a week, then maybe you can talk your sh*t.
Until then, you have no clue as to what poor kids do. Where did you get that info, that you can remark about?
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by PaulKemme December 7, 2011 3:59 PM EST
NOT TRUE! I like Newt Gingrich! Newt is intelligent, well thought out, a good academic, a good debater, and he has experience. Is he perfect? No, but I don't know anyone who is. Newt Gingrich had only one alleged "ethics violation", and a subsequent IRS ruling essentially CLEARED him on that one. Newt knows Washington, and won't need "on the job training". Newt is a "real" candidate and is not "manufactured" meaning that he hasn't had his whole history hidden, and then re manufactured through his books as the current president. Before you judge Newt, visit his website and watch some of his speeches; he's a wonderful orator! Newt Gingrich has my vote of confidence!See Newt Gingrich at his best here:http://youtu.be/SQxturElvxI
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by leftyintexas December 7, 2011 11:25 AM EST
The Pillsberry doughboy has a way of putting his foot in his mouth a lot , doesn't he? Gingrich is about as big a crook as they come... and he's throwing rocks at the poor kids? Give me a break!
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