Newt Gingrich - A Parent Fighting for Our Children

Newt Gingrich is a father and a former educator. He understands the hopes and fears American parents realize when they look at the world their children are growing up in. When we have 12-year-olds having babies, 15-year-olds killing each other, 17-year-olds dying of AIDS, 18-year-olds getting diplomas they can’t read, and in some cases, 25-year-olds who still haven’t had a job, we need to stop and approach our problems in a new way:

• Newt supports Health Insurance Reforms that help families and children, including allowing families to "own" their health plans and not lose them when a working parent changes jobs. He also supports Medical Savings Accounts, allowing families to obtain optimal health care.

• Led by Newt, Congress passed a strengthening of "Megan’s Law," requiring states to alert local police when a convicted child molester moves into their communities, and requiring the local police to alert the residents themselves of those communities.

• Newt strongly supported Congress’ passing of the Crimes Against Children and Elderly Persons Punishment and Prevention Act. The bill increases the punishment for crimes committed against children under the age of 14, senior citizens and "vulnerable persons" such as mentally or physically handicapped.

• Newt supported measures, signed into law, that increased penalties for child pornography and targets those that use computers for child pornography.

• Newt supported the renewing of the Ryan White Act for AIDS research. He also supported the so-called "Baby AIDS" provisions that call for mandatory HIV testing of all babies born in the U.S. whose mothers have not undergone prenatal testing, for early detection and treatment.

• Newt was a proponent of legislation that gives over 1.4 million families and their children who live in squalid public housing projects the opportunity to raise their children in a caring and nurturing environment through housing vouchers. It also gives incentives for home-ownership and allows local housing authorities to evict drug and alcohol abusers whose behavior represents a danger to the health and safety of children and other law abiding citizens.

• Newt was a strong advocate for adoption reforms. He led Congress to pass a bill that allowed families a $5000 tax credit to offset the costs associated with adoption, lift restrictions on adopting children of different races, and make the process of adoption easier.

• Newt strongly supports The Saving Our Children Act, which:

-Grants Opportunity Scholarships to low-income children to attend the school of their choice -- public, private or religious --so that every family can send their children to private or prestigious or safe schools.

-Makes it easier for faith-based institutions that provide services to the poor to participate in federal programs, especially with respect to drug treatment and counseling services.

-Creates a new tax credit available to all taxpayers, not just those who itemize, to encourage donations to organizations that provide services to the poor.

• Newt supported the House’s passing of legislation that gives schools more flexibility in providing students with school lunches that meet federal nutrition guidelines, while increasing the amount of money in the program to provide food.

• Newt supports the Parental Rights and Responsibilities Act, which protects children from unjustified intrusions by government bureaucrats into the parent-child relationship in areas such as sex education, religious training and health care decisions.

• Newt has pushed for child support and foster care reforms. These reforms would benefit the more than 80 percent of custodial parents who are owed child support but do not currently receive it. Reforms to the broken and uncaring foster care system would improve protections for the children who are its primary victims.

• Even though president Clinton vetoed the balanced budget, Newt Gingrich and the Republican Congress have cut $43 billion in wasteful Washington spending, which means $700 of debt that will not be passed on to a family of four.

• In the balanced budget Newt and the Republican Congress proposed (vetoed by Clinton) specific programs targeted at low-income children were either untouched or increased, including:

-Head Start funding has increased from $3.3 billion in 1994 to 3.6 billion in 1996.

-Foster care and adoption assistance funding increased from $2.9 billion in 1994 to $4.3 billion in 1996.

-The federal school lunch program funding increased from $4.4 billion in 1994 to $4.7 billion in 1996.

-Federal child care spending -- AFDC and the Child Care Development Block Grant -- increased from $1.9 billion in 1994 to $2.2 billion in 1996.

• Newt proposed "American Dream Savings Accounts" which would allow workers to contribute to accounts that grow tax-free and permit parents to withdraw funds on a tax-free and penalty-free basis to cover education costs. (Clinton vetoed it)

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