Gingrich: Americans shouldn't get paid to "sit around and do nothing"

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich says that, if elected president, he'd change the American unemployment system -- and that under his plan, the government "wouldn't be paying you to sit around and do nothing.'

In a Thursday interview with the "CBS Evening News with Scott Pelley," Gingrich told CBS News' Dean Reynolds that he'd make job training a prerequisite to getting unemployment benefits.

"I also propose that we change the unemployment system," Gingrich said. "So to get unemployment compensation you would sign up for a training program run by a business."

"So we'd be paying you to get to improve human capital," the former House speaker continued. "We wouldn't be paying you to sit around and do nothing."

When asked who would pay for the training, Gingrich said it would be up to the businesses - "because they'd be getting new, better trained workers."

Watch the clip at left, and see more from the interview on Thursday's CBS "Evening News."