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Candidate discusses value of home ownership
Newt Gingrich arrived in Columbia a day after the rest of the Republican presidential candidates made their debut in the city campaigning for the “First in the South” primary.
Gingrich had a busy schedule, arriving late to the Rally for Home Ownership at the Statehouse Thursday afternoon.
The candidate discussed the value of owning a home through his parents’ experience. He told how they rented an apartment in Pennsylvania above a gas station. He also said they rented apartments when Gingrich’s father was in the Army and went wherever “Uncle Sam” told them to. His parents finally bought a home when Gingrich’s father retired, and the sense of homestead they felt, Gingrich said, is what America is all about. Gingrich said that what his parents felt — the feeling of belonging associated with owning a home — can’t be understood by those who live in high-rise apartment buildings and ride the metro to the middle of town where they write for fancy newspapers.
In the ’90s, Gingrich got involved with Habitat for Humanity because he said it attracted people who were willing to build their own homes.
In order to create more home owners in America, Gingrich wants to develop a stable, safe mortgage system where people who have never owned a house can learn how to budget.
Gingrich also emphasized transparency in government, creating jobs and an “American energy policy generating so much energy that no American president ever again bows to a Saudi king.”
Gingrich outlined how he will directly affect South Carolina by modernizing the port of Charleston to receive ships when the Panama Canal is opened in 2014. He also pointed out it is less expensive to manufacture in South Carolina than to manufacture in China.
If elected, Gingrich said he will ask Congress to stay in session and work on three repeals before the inauguration. He said Obamacare and Dodd Frank should be repealed because it is killing small business, and Sarbanes-Oxley should be repealed because it has added tons of paperwork to no advantage.
“America has never been perfect, but the ideal of America is a wonderful thing, and we’re still wrestling with it,” Gingrich said.
After quoting the Declaration of Independence and saying all Americans have equal rights to the liberties laid out by the Founding Fathers, Gingrich clarified their intentions.
“There’s no suggestion in the Declaration of Independence that what we need are Happiness Stamps for the underhappy, or that you ought to have the right to sue if you feel unhappy, or that we’re going to redistribute happiness so that if this side is overly happy we’re going to take part of it and give it to this side over here.”
After his speech, Gingrich left quickly, with reporters surrounding him as he trekked from the Statehouse steps back to his bus, pausing to take pictures with a few supporters.