Showing posts with label Andre Bauer. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Andre Bauer. Show all posts

Monday, January 25, 2010

S.C. Republican Lt. Gov.: Poor like 'stray animals'



South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer has compared those on government assistance to “stray animals,” saying that the reason you stop feeding animals is that “they breed.”


Bauer is one of the leading Republican candidates for governor and gained national prominence after calling on Republican Gov. Mark Sanford to resign after his admission to an affair with an Argentine woman. But Bauer now finds himself in hot water for his remarks to a town hall meeting on Friday.


“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,” Bauer said during a speech advocating that the government take away assistance to those who do not pass drug tests.


“You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or a person ample food supply,” Bauer added, according to a report in the Greenville News. “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, who grew up in a working-class family, said parents whose children receive free, or subsidized, lunches at school should stop receiving government benefits if they do not attend parent-teacher conferences.


“You go to a school where there’s an active participation of parents, and guess what? They have the highest test scores,” Bauer said. “So what do you do? You say, ‘Look folks, if you receive goods or services from the government and you don't attend a parent-teacher conference, bam, you lose your benefits.’”


The comments have become the focus of the state’s heated gubernatorial campaign, dominating headlines in South Carolina’s political press.


Bauer did not respond to a request to comment, but has defended the remarks by saying the “stray animals” comparison was taken out of context.



Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0110/31959.html#ixzz0dfbn3JBb

Do you agree with South Carolina Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer that the poor are like stray animals?  Please comment...