Democracy Has Prevailed.

January 25, 2010

SC Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer compares needy getting govt. aid to "feeding stray animals"

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Lt. Gov. Andre "Potter" Bauer, Lt. Gov. Andre "Burns" Bauer, or Lt. Gov. Andre "Scrooge" Bauer? Take your pick.

From The Sun News:
GREENVILLE - Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared giving people government assistance to "feeding stray animals."

Bauer, who is running for the Republican nomination for governor, made his remarks during a town hall meeting in Fountain Inn that included state lawmakers and about 115 residents.

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed. You're facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones that don't think too much further than that. And so what you've got to do is you've got to curtail that type of behavior. They don't know any better," Bauer said.

[snip]

Later in his speech, Bauer said, "I can show you a bar graph where free and reduced lunch has the worst test scores in the state of South Carolina," adding, "You show me the school that has the highest free and reduced lunch, and I'll show you the worst test scores, folks. It's there, period.

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5 comments:

Unknown said...

Too bad his parents "bred."

Maria said...

I heard on CNN tonight that he apologised...not about his comments about people, but that he does care about animals.

Un-freaking-believable.

Joy said...

Here's part of his updated statement (from politico):
"Nobody in that meeting or any other meeting where I’ve said that before had any problem with it. In fact, I had a black minister at that meeting and he came up to me afterwards and asked if I could come speak to his congregation.”

Because, you know, "poor freeloader" is code for "black," so if a black guy approves of the statement, it's clearly OK.

Digging in deeper and deeper here...

Richard Aries said...

I wrote the jerk and got back this as part of a long, lying email: "As a child, I was raised by a poor, single parent and was the recipient of free school lunch. As an adult, I created a foundation called Palmetto Tomorrow that has helped thousands of people in need. I am 100% in favor of helping out those in our society who are truly in need, but there are far too many folks who have figured out how to ride the government “gravy train”. And it’s not just the fault of the recipient – the government has created a system that de-incentivizes getting off this public assistance, the cycle repeats itself, and we are faced with generational dependence and poverty. We must have a discussion about changing this culture of dependency so that these folks may break the cycle and climb out of a situation that, in the long run, does no good for anyone." Maybe he should give all those free meals back to the lobbyist and take the healthcare the rest of us have?

:-Derek said...

"My grandmother was not a highly educated woman"

That is clear and provides insight into the depth of her wisdom. The complexities of life are apparently also lost on her grandson. Disconnection from reality is a prime attribute of contemporary leadership in the USA. Thus we fail.