Newt Gingrich visits South Florida

BOYNTON BEACH, Fla. - Former Speaker of the House and longtime member of the GOP Newt Gingrich panned President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech during a stop in South Florida Thursday.

Gingrich called it shallow, and said it lacked seriousness.

"The people of the United States have every reason to be angry at a big, expensive, sloppy federal government that is incompetent; the president made a passing joke about three different departments dealing with salmon but it's not a joke."

The former Speaker visited Bethesda Memorial Hospital in Boynton Beach to talk about health care.

He claims the U.S. is in the middle of a health care crisis.

Gingrich visited the hospital's hyperbaric medicine program. He spoke with a cancer survivor while she was undergoing hyperbaric treatment.

The chamber puts the patient under pressure with 100 percent oxygen. It is used to treat patients with wounds or that have had cell damage from radiation.

He says right now Washington isn't open to new, innovative medical ideas like it should be.

Gingrich says that innovations in health care will be few and far between if the federal government takes more control. "I think it's very important to keep the level of decentralization and the level of local autonomy needed so that smart people can get together and do smart things without having to convince some bureaucrat in Washington who may not have a clue."

Gingrich is not a declared candidate but considering a run for president. Despite reports that he told a Georgia Republican that he plans to run, he said he hasn't made a decision yet.

"To be a citizen leader shouldn't have to automatically mean you are or aren't a candidate. We need a national conversation at an adult level about very large-scale change. In terms of candidacy, I'll make that decision at the end of February, which I've said roughly for 6 months. I think and I'm happy to repeat it as long as I'm asked."