House Speaker Newt Gingrich said Friday that the nation's press routinely passes along lies that bureaucrats and liberals tell about the effects Republican programs would have on women and children.
He said it was "despicable demagoguery" for the press and opponents to picture him as a man who is going to take away children's school lunches.The Republican leader said Congress was increasing the lunch program by 4.5 percent and increasing aid to women and children "above the Clinton projections."
"The press corps of this country ought to report it that way and it is shameful when the major newspapers of this country repeat routinely the lies of liberals who are saving the bureaucrats by using the children," he said.
Gingrich spoke to an audience of more than 1,000 New York government, business and civic leaders at a breakfast of the Association for a Better New York.