Newt Gingrich attacked Mitt Romney on two fronts this morning, arguing that Romney has too much faith in the government safety net and that his proposed minimum wage index would increase unemployment among young people.
“He favors indexing [the] minimum wage when virtually every economist in the country believes that further makes it difficult for young people to get a job,” Gingrich said on Meet the Press of his rival’s plan to tie the minimum wage to inflation. “This is a country right now where 43 percent of young African-Americans are unemployed. In Nevada, it’s 31 percent of all teenagers are unemployed. We should be making it easier for young people to get a job, not raising the cost of hiring young people, making it harder. I’m for much, much bolder tax changes than he is.”
Romney’s minimum wage proposal has received attention since he said “I’m not concerned about the very poor” in a recent interview. Gingrich criticized him on that front, as well. “You just had a quote from Governor Romney that’s a perfect example,” he told David Gregory. “He says he doesn’t worry much about the very poor because they have a safety net. Well, the safety net in many ways has become a spider web. It traps them at the bottom.”
