Newt Gingrich on Families & Children Former Republican Representative (GA-6) and Speaker of the House

Let poor kids work so they learn like middle class

GINGRICH: I think virtually every person up here worked at a young age. What I suggested was, kids ought to be allowed to work part-time in school, particularly in the poorest neighborhoods, both because they could use the money. If you take 1/2 of the New York janitors who are unionized and paid more than the teachers, an entry-level janitor gets paid twice as much as an entry-level teacher. You take half of those janitors, you could give lots of poor kids a work experience in the cafeteria and the school library and front office. I'll stand by the idea, young people ought to learn how to work. Middle class kids do it routinely. We should give poor kids the same chance to pursue happiness.

ROMNEY: To have kids work in the library does not require changing our child labor laws in this country.

Reward high-school girls who graduate as virgins

Responsibility for child's education resides with parents

The point is not to demonize the public school system. Rather, the point is to reinforce the time-honored principle that the authority and responsibility to raise children, direct their education, and instill in them the values that make a free society flourish, all reside with the child's parents, not the state.

Stop funding China's mandatory one-child policy

Valuing life from the beginning to end is central to a healthy culture. To uphold life we should:
• Ensure that taxpayer dollars are never used for funding elective abortions, which are cases that don't involve rape or incest or where it is necessary to save the life of the mother.
• Defund the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), which is using U.S. taxpayer dollars to help enforce China's mandatory one-child policy that compels, sometimes through force, millions of women to undergo abortions.
• Reinstate the "Mexico City Policy,: which banned funding to organizations that promote and/or perform abortion overseas. President Obama rescinded it shortly after his inauguration.
• Protect the frail, the infirm, and the elderly from the state's arbitrary decision to terminate life.

Aging baby boomers need more independent & assisted living

1. Develop a system in which those who wish to stay economically active are encouraged and incentivized to do so because active people live longer and healthier, and are less of a burden on their fellow citizens;
2. Develop a system of independent living and assisted living that increases the years in which people can be on their own and in most cases enables people to live their entire lives with freedom and dignity;
3. Develop a new model of quality long-term care in which both the care and the quality of life are compatible with a twenty-first century American expectation of progress and innovation;
4. Use new technologies to turn disabilities into capabilities and change government regulations to help every American achieve the fullest possible ability to pursue happiness.

OpEd: refused to pay child support, but supports DOMA

The Defense of Marriage Act is supported by EVERY Republican except Wisconsin's Steve Gunderson, who is openly gay. In fact, Gunderson provides some of the strongest and most emotional arguments on the floor against this absurd piece of legislation.

Re-establish shame to enforce family values and behavior

It is shameful for radio stations to play songs that advocate mutilating and raping women. Government can't and shouldn't censor it, but decent advertisers could announce they will boycott any radio station that plays that kind of music. Within weeks these brutal, barbaric songs would be off the air.

Cultural signals are a powerful and legitimate means of enforcing proper behavior. Our culture should be sending over and over the message that young people should abstain from sexual intercourse until marriage, that work is a part of life, and that any male who does not take care of his children is a bum and deserves no respect.

Child tax credit favors family budget over federal budget

I always thought the issue was very simple. We believe that if you have children and earn money, you ought to have first claim on your money to care for your own children. Our liberal friends believe the bureaucrats deserve the money more than the parents.

The great surprise was that the income level at which the child tax credit would be cut off became a big issue. Originally, we had no limit. However, a number of members felt uncomfortable about giving the credit to the very wealthy, and we compromised at $200,000 in joint income. Frankly, setting any limit was probably an error. There is a class warfare mentality that infects the Washington press corps and sets the tone of much of the debate in Washington.

No society can survive with 12-year-olds having babies

"No society can survive, no civilization can survive with 12-year-olds having babies, with 15-year-olds killing each other, with 17-year-olds dying of AIDS, & with 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can't read."

More have noted that the decline of morality in our society has occurred since 1960, during the most aggressively antireligion activity by "reformers." It is troubling enough that all these indicators are so much worse than they were 35 years ago. What is even more troubling for those who love America is that society now is not different just in degree but almost in kind from the America of 1960.

Marriage penalty costs low-income couples $4,600 per year

His favorite example: the tax code's marriage penalty, or that part that affects lower-income citizens. Gingrich used the example of a man earning $11,000 a year who wanted to marry a woman earning the same amount. Because each taxpayer would be eligible for the Earned Income Tax Credit, a marriage ceremony and license would cost the couple $4,000 a year.

"And then you have politicians," Gingrich says, "who say, 'Gee, we have too many births out of wedlock.' And your government wants to encourage you to get married by taking from you 25% of your income?"

Gingrich doesn't blame individuals for socially damaging behavior. His target is the system that fosters it. He wants instead a system that guides citizens to the proper choices.

1979: his marriage collapsed because "all humans sin"

Over the years, a body of lore has been compiled about the marriage and what broke it: Gingrich is said to have told a friend that Jackie wasn't young enough or pretty enough to be the wife of a president. He denies those comments.

When asked why his marriage ended, Gingrich never has denied that he broke his marriage vows: He confirmed in many forums, "I'm human, and all human beings sin."

The fires were fueled in 1981, when just a few months after his divorce, Gingrich married Marianne Ginther. She was 15 years younger than Jackie. A body of stories developed that is still circulating today concerning alleged affairs with unnamed women.

Co-established bipartisan task force on the family

It's conceivable I was insensitive during my divorce

All I can say is when you've been talking about divorce for 11 years and you've gone to a marriage counselor, and the other person doesn't want the divorce, I'm not sure there is any sensitive way to handle it.
--The Washington Post, January 3, 1985

I'm willing to say, having one through the last five and six years and having understood that--as an incorrigible bulldozer-- it's conceivable I was that insensitive. It was never in any sense deliberate.
--Commenting on the story that he asked for a divorce while Jackie was in the hospital recovering from a cancer operation, The Washington Post, June 12, 1989

Welfare system destroys the family; replace welfare state

So if you don't have a revolution, you're going to have a country which is decaying. And I think our goal is very simple. It is our goal to replace the welfare state. Not to reform it, not to improve it, not to modify it, to replace it. To go straight at the core structure and the core values of the welfare state, and replace them with a much more powerful, much more effective system.
--Remarks at the Young Republicans Leadership Conference, Washington D.C. March 19, 1992

Families are not anything other than heterosexual couples

[The Republican Party's position] should be toleration. It should not be promotion and it should not be condemnation. I don't want to see police in the men's room, which we had when I was a child, and I don't want to see trying to educate kindergartners in understanding gay couples.

It is madness to pretend that families are anything other than heterosexual couples. I think it goes to the core of how civilization functions.
--The Washington Blade. November 25, 1994

Welfare incentives encourage teen pregnancy

Fact: Republicans understand one important thing ignored by most Democrats--incentives affect behavior. Currently, the federal government provides young girls the following deal: Have an illegitimate baby and taxpayers will guarantee you cash, food stamps, and medical care, plus a host of other benefits. As long as you stay single and don't work, we'll continue giving you benefits worth a minimum of $12,000 per year ($3,000 more than a full-time job paying a minimum wage). It's time to change the incentives and make responsible parenthood the norm and not the exception.

Enforce child support

The Family Reinforcement Act:
1. protects parents' rights to supervise their children's participation in any federally funded program and shield them from federally sponsored surveys that involve intrusive questioning;
2. requires states to give "full faith and credit" to child support orders issued by the courts or the administrative procedures of other states;
3. provides a refundable tax credit of up to $5,000 for families adopting a child;
4. strengthens penalties for child pornography and criminal sexual conduct involving minors; and
5. provides a $500 tax credit for families caring for a dependent elderly parent or grandparent.

Use tax code to reinforce families.

[As part of the Contract with America, within 100 days we pledge to bring to the House Floor the following bill]:

The Families Reinforcement Act:
Child support enforcement, tax incentives for adoption, strengthening rights of parents in their children’s education, stronger child pornography laws, and an elderly dependent care tax credit to reinforce the central role of families in American society.