Why Gingrich Speaks to Youth

Home Opinion Why Gingrich Speaks to Youth

The dim reality of the young people’s futures has placed conservatives in a position to win back their vote in 2012. Yet, youth issues are scarcely talked about amongst the candidates—except one, Newt Gingrich.
Youth unemployment is the highest among any demographic, hovering around 17 percent. The average student debt per person is over $26,000. Combining these two horrific truths, students face a future of dependency—on their parents, and even worse, on the government.
Newt Gingrich’s pro-youth message must be heard, and Monday night at Hillsdale College is the perfect place, and here is why:

  1. Young people are anything but “secure” in Social Security, and Newt’s kicked welfare to the curb before. As the biggest component of America’s budget, the Heritage Foundation estimates that by 2017, Social Security will be paying more in benefits than payroll taxes bring in. At this rate, young people will never see the money they payed into the system. As Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich and the Republican majority successfully passed welfare reform as part of the Contract with America. Newt’s current plan for the welfare system is one of privatization and personal accounts. Young people will have control over their money and their future — not the government.
  2. Young people need a future of balanced budgets, not increased spending. The rate of Washington’s rampant spending is unsustainable. National debt has surpassed $15 trillion and each citizen shares over $46,000 of this burden. What does that mean for our generation? If things don’t change in the very near future, younger generations will forever be enslaved to big government. Newt Gingrich and the republican majority successfully combated a liberal president and balanced the budget in the ’90s. Young people need the strength that Newt Gingrich had in the ’90s to put America back on track for the sake of their future.
  3. ObamaCare takes away the freedom of young people by allowing them to stay on their parents healthcare plan until age 26. Young people want freedom, and government is not providing the environment for it. The nanny state is emerging subtly through plans such as ObamaCare. In a mid-January debate on CNN, when asked about young people under Obamacare, Newt responded with: “Why has President Obama allowed young people stay on their president’s health care until they are 26? Because he can’t get any jobs for them to go out and buy their own insurance.” The problem isn’t young people and health care, the problem is young people not having the jobs to get their own health care. “I have an offer to the parents of America: elect us, and your kids will be able to move out, and your kids will be able to move out because they’ll have work,” he said.

For conservatives to win back the youth vote in 2012, young people need to feel like their issues and their future is important in the eyes of the candidates. Newt Gingrich has proven that he cares about the issues of our generation, and what a better way to let it shine than on Monday night at Hillsdale College.