Gingrich has argued that children in poor neighborhoods should be employed as janitors in schools and he expanded on that theme Thursday, saying: “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.”
http://thehill.com/blogs/twitter-room — December 3, 2011
Poverty among children is rising, and is estimated to be over 20% now.
Most poor children live in a household where at least one parent is employed. And even among children who live in extreme poverty — defined here as a household with income less than 50 percent of the poverty level — a third have at least one working parent. And even among extremely poor children who live in extremely poor areas — those in which 30 percent or more of the population is poor — nearly a third live with at least one working parent. — NYT OP Ed, 12/03/11
Newt is probably projecting his own issues onto the little children, but his message seems particularly cold and heartless as the Christmas Season begins.
