Gingrich: Obama doesn't think 'work is good'

Republican presidential candidate Newt Gingrich is doubling down on his assertion that Barack Obama is a "food stamp president" by suggesting that the current White House resident doesn't even think "work is good."

During a Fox News debate in South Carolina Monday, moderator Bret Baier lobbed the former House Speaker a softball question, asking if he supported 99 weeks of unemployment benefits. The Georgia Republican is on record saying, "I don’t want to pay people 99 weeks to do nothing."

"The help we ought to give them is to connect them to a business-run training program to acquire the skills to be employable," Gingrich explained. "Ninety-nine weeks is an associate degree."

"It tells you everything you need to know about Barack Obama and the five of us [Republican candidates] that we actually think work is good," he added to the delight of the conservative South Carolina audience.

"And we think unconditional efforts by the best food stamp president in American to maximize dependency is terrible for the future of this country."

Later in the evening, the audience booed moderator Juan Williams for asking if Gingrich had “belittled the poor and racial minorities” by declaring that black Americans should demand jobs, not foodstamps.

Watch this video from Fox News, broadcast Jan. 16, 2012.