Jackson Free Press

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich will carry his jobs summit to Millsaps College today at 4 p.m. Gingrich's Web site describes the event as "a real jobs summit," to rival President Barack Obama's jobs summit held at the White House today.

Gingrich held a similar event yesterday in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lauded the importance of cutting taxes, controlling government spending and reducing regulation and litigation to stimulate the creation of new jobs, according to FOX News. Gingrich also pressed the importance of personal responsibility regarding the nation's slumping economy, and chided people for increasing their personal debt and buying homes that were more expensive than they could reasonably afford.

Gingrich dismissed the president's job summit as "political theater" on his Web site.

"As the administration actively promotes job-killing health care, energy and big labor legislation, millions of Americans struggling to find work won't be fooled by the political theater of a 'jobs summit,'" Gingrich stated.

Mississippi Democratic Party Chairman Jamie Franks said the Gingrich message sounded identical to the political philosophy that heralded the nation's plummet into economic hard times.

"It's strange that the Republicans have to reach back to the 1990s to pick out their plan for improving our future," Franks said. "They spent the last decade pushing the philosophy of tax cuts and deregulation and nothing else, and we've got almost double-digit unemployment in Mississippi for all their effort. What Gingrich needs to do is get the founder of the Contract With America, Haley Barbour, to get Mississippi straightened out. With all the cuts he's planning for kids' education I can't wait for Barbour's last two years to end."

Millsaps political science professor Michael Reinhard said Gingrich may be accurate in opposing long-term government spending, such as federally-financed job programs, to fight the recession.

"Things like that feel good in the short term, but it's not a good way to move us forward in the long term," Reinhard said. "The temporary programs following the Great Depression were mostly a good idea, but they were recognized as temporary programs to deal with price deflation. We had a contraction in money and credit at the end of last year, and at that time it was appropriate to have stimulus spending. But if you keep doing it, you transfer more of the management of the economy from the private sector, where people respond to signals and fill genuine human needs that people are willing to pay for, to the government, where people respond to political signals and who has political power."

Gingrich will hold his presentation at the main recital hall of Millsaps' Academic Complex. Reinhard said students will be on hand to guide visitors.