Well, maybe I should have said that he understands the problems of the low-income people (better than some Rs). I don't know (yet) if he cares as much as... would be commensurate with... say, how much Jesus wants him to care...
Excerpts from Gingrich's book To Renew America
All emphasis is mine
[This book is supposed to be “outdated” and yet everything Gingrich says here is unfortunately still applicable today.]
Gingrich:
For every day that we allow... [the trap of government dependency] to continue, we are condemning the poor... to being deprived of their basic rights as Americans. The welfare state reduces the poor from citizens to clients. It breaks up families, minimizes work incentives, blocks people from saving and acquiring property, and overshadows dreams of a promised future with a present despair born of poverty, violence, and hopelessness.
When a welfare mother in Wisconsin can be punished for sewing her daughter's clothing and saving on food stamps so she can set aside $3000 for her daughter's education, you know there is something wrong.
When a woman who sells candy out of her apartment in a public housing project cannot open a store because she would lose her subsidized rent and health care and end up paying in taxes and lost benefits all she earned in profit, you know. There is something wrong.
Gary Franks, a congressman from CT tells of going into grade schools and asking young children what they hope to be when they grow up. Basketball players, football players and baseball players are the 3 answers, in that order. What if you can't be an athlete? he then asks. They have no answer. It is beyond the experience of these children to consider becoming a lawyer or an accountant or a businessman. The public housing children, no matter what their ethnic backgrounds, have simply no conception of the world of everyday work...