Gingrich Gets His Facts Wrong, Claims GOP Governors Have Lowest Unemployment In Their Regions

Yesterday, former House Speaker Newt Gingrich appeared on CBS’s Face the Nation to discuss the future of the Republican Party. He touted Republican governors — who met last week in Miami — as the source for all the best ideas, specifically praising Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels and Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman for supposedly shepherding in low unemployment:

GINGRICH: I would say, for example, to the Republicans who are about to face this question of, how do you get the economy growing again? Bring in Governor Daniels and bring in Governor Huntsman [R-UT], and ask them, you know, how did they get to the lowest unemployment rate in their respective regions? Go back to a principled approach.

Watch it:

Unfortunately, as Media Matters points out, Gingrich got his facts wrong. Utah’s unemployment rate in September was 3.5 percent, bested by Wyoming’s 3.3 percent.

At 6.2 percent, Indiana isn’t even close to having the lowest unemployment rate in its Midwest region: It ranks eighth out of the 12 states in the region. Iowa (4.2 percent), Kansas (4.8 percent), Minnesota (5.9 percent), Nebraska (3.5 percent), North Dakota (3.6 percent), South Dakota (3.2 percent), and Wisconsin (5 percent) all posted lower unemployment rates than Indiana. And, as Media Matters notes, “Three of those states — Iowa, Kansas, and Wisconsin — have Democratic governors.”

Gingrich also touted Gov. Bobby Jindal (R-LA) as knowing “more about health policy than any other elected official in America,” and said he is doing “extraordinary things” in his state. However, Igor Volsky writes that Jindal’s recently-announced plan could turn out to be a “more industry-friendly approach that allows insurers to make short-term profits without focusing on long term investments.” One Louisiana doctor said Jindal’s plan could “potentially lead to less quality and not more quality.”