Newt's mom had it right

I listened to Newt Gingrich the other night branding those on unemployment compensation as lazy people who preferred to draw money from the government than work. He believed that there are many lower paying jobs out there but are being turned down because of the lure of easy money. What better expert on drawing lazy money than Newt, a person who has been living on public funds many years.

His criticism touched a nerve last night when a mechanic who had been surviving on UC explained how the system works. He said that those "lower paying jobs," should he have taken one, would not provide enough funds for him to pay the mortgage, taxes, bills and keep food on the table. He would have ending up losing his home by defaulting on mortgage payments. A $7.75 per hour job just won't cut it. Eventually he found a job that paid enough and he left the federal assistance program. He explained however, that UC is not welfare, as republicans like to call it, but an unemployment fund he has been paying in to during the years he was working so that he would be insured if he lost his job. Newt has never had that problem so he would not understand the agony many are going through just to survive.

I often wondered what Newt's mom was thinking when she named her son. I went to the dictionary and found this definition: "Newt - small tailed batrachian of lizard-like appearance, living in ponds, ditches and moist places." Newt, as it turns out, you are all wet. Newt's mom had it right.