Starve Them and Stop the Breeding

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Starve Them and Stop the Breeding
53
Mon, 01-25-2010 - 1:38pm
It's hard to believe that such a statement actually came out of the mouth of a high ranking state political leader.
S.C. Republican’s Plan: Starve the Poor So They’ll Stop “Breeding”
by James Ridgeway



Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer: If you feed, them, they’ll just come back for more–and worse still, they’ll multiply.

Poor people are like stray dogs and cats, says South Carolina’s Republican Lt. Governor, Andre Bauer. If you feed, them, they’ll just come back for more–and worse still, they’ll multiply. That’s why it’s a bad idea to give them free food or other forms of public assistance.


At a forum in Greeneville on Saturday, Bauer, who is running for governor, told the crowd:



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.


In a later interview with the Columbia, S.C. newspaper The State, Bauer “said he could have chosen his words more carefully,” but that doesn’t change the fact that “South Carolina needs to have an honest conversation about the cycle of government dependency among its poorest residents.”


According to the Children’s Defense Fund, those ���poorest residents” include 190,000 children. South Carolina is the 37th worst state when it come to child poverty, 45th worst for infant mortality, and 48th worst for low birth weight babies. Perhaps Andre Bauer can have an “honest conversation” with them–if they aren’t too hungry to talk.


Bauer, who has risen in state politics as a Christian conservative, was immediately attacked by his Democratic opponents for the governor’s seat:



“It amazes me how some Republican politicians claim a monopoly on Christianity and then go out and say and do some of the most un-Christian things imaginable,” said Charleston attorney Mullins McLeod, who participated in a candidates forum in Columbia along with Bauer Saturday. “... Bauer’s comments are despicable and the total opposite of the Christian values Bauer espouses.”


Those “Christian values” were much on display back in June of 2009, when Bauer was rumored to be pressuring Mark Sanford to resign after the governor declared his love for his Argentinian girlfriend. (According to state law, Bauer would have replaced him.)


Yes, Mr. Bauer, let's starve them. That should definitely do the trick. Before long America could look just like Haiti (before the earthquake), with rows of plywood shacks in every city and little children dying in the streets. What an America to be proud of.


Are there too many people taking advantage of so-called poverty in this country?  Absolutely. Should we try to re-evaluate "poverty" and make changes accordingly?  You bet. But the idea of starvation as a means to ending poverty? What kind of heartless creature even allows such a thought to come to their mind?


 In case Mr. Bauer hasn't noticed (and I'm sure he hasn't) there are approximately 11 million Americans out of a job right now. An immeasurable number are underemployed.


Before we could even consider making poor people self-reliant we would have to find work for all those who are currently marketable but lack decent employment. Then we would have to school and train those poor people to bring them up to speed in order for them to compete in the job market alongside everyone else. And the truly poor, those who honestly deserve public assistance will never be on the job rolls because they are elderly or handicapped (physically or mentally). Should we watch poor, elderly people starve to death? What about the handicapped? Should we starve them, too?


It is statements like Mr. Bauer's that has turned me against anything even remotely Republican. With spokespeople like him and Rush and Sean, how much lower could they sink when it comes to thoughtlessness and the inability to find solutions rather than brew hatefulness?


 

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 1:16am

I am, by NO means, defending what the man said. I know many will twist what I say here and assume that I am defending him....but I am not.

That being said, he did not say to starve children like you quoted him as saying. He was using an analogy of feeding stray animals and people getting government assistance. His point being that the government continues to reward "bad behavior". He speaks of babies having babies (which nobody can deny DOES happen) and how politicians refuse to talk about it because it is politically incorrect.

The point of his speech was to make people taking government assistance to be accountable. They should have to take a drug test. The should be required to show up for their child's parent-teacher conference, etc. His point was not to starve children. The media has clearly taken what he said WAY out of context.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jpb4nwfiaPY

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-22-2010
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 8:12am

I couldn't agree with you more. I think the abuse of the welfare system in this country is outrageous. But.... don't compare human beings to stray animals. That's a very callous and inappropriate analogy.


Who do we blame for this abuse? Those who are getting the free ride or the mechanism that gives out the free ride?

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 8:19am

I agree with you. I really don't know anything about Bauer and have never heard of him before all of this. I'm not from S.C.

There are so many things the government COULD do to create incentive to get people off of government assistance. The problem is that no politician wants to touch that with a 10 foot pole. As Bauer said, "It's just not politically correct to do so".

My point of posting was only to say that he brought up some really good points and people really do need to discuss these issues....he just used a really, really bad analogy. He was not advocating starving the poor children as one poster had quoted him as saying.

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-24-2007
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 9:16am

whoever this guy is, he used a really bad way to explain himself.

iVillage Member
Registered: 11-17-2009
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 9:28am
Very well said. Excellent post.
iVillage Member
Registered: 10-28-2009
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 9:29am

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How is that possible? There are lifetime limits and 30 years is way over those limits.

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 10:15am

In my state, you're only allowed to collect welfare for 2 years. I think there is also a life time limit on food stamps, unless disabled or elderly. You also have to have a HS diploma or getting a GED. They must work for the money they receive from welfare. Like picking up litter, working at a community center, or painting public buildings.

Did read something horrible in our local paper about 3 months ago. If you're poor and can't afford to bury your loved one. You have to dig their grave. Ohio has been so over-whelmed with the poor that they are refusing to bury them. There was a story about a young man who had died. At the grave, he fell out of the bottom of the cardboard box coffin. Then the grave caved in on him. Just so sad.

I know that there are those who want our poor to live like they do in Haiti. But I have more compassion than that!

iVillage Member
Registered: 01-24-2007
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 10:31am

How is that possible? There are lifetime limits and 30 years is way over those limits.


iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 10:41am
A lifetime cap on welfare? Where do you live? I know a woman who is in her mid 40s, was married at age 15 (didn't finish school) had a baby by 16, and two later. She has been drawing welfare for years. Just by saying she and her husband were separated, she qualified for welfare and food stamps and section 8. Of course her hubby still lived with them, no one ever bothered to find out. All of her children were born on welfare, one was diagnosed with ADHD and put on ritalin (sp) when she was five, on anti depressants when she was about 10 (does this sound like the drs were helping this child?) and she was about three grades behind in school when she got pg at 17, quit school, didn't go to a dr, lost the baby and now is over 18 and can't be on any programs....but wait! They took her to be evaluated and it was "discovered" she has a very low IQ so now she may qualify! The eldest daughter married at 20, had a son, left her husband and their son, had three other children by three other men and although she is being "made" to work, all the children are on welfare. She has lied to section 8, and now cannot get housing. There is one other daughter in school, but she also is about three grades behind, and where she gets her money for cigarettes and cell phone minutes is beyond me....I could go on and on...but you see how this goes...there will always be people like this on welfare as long as they can get it. I don't want to see anyone who NEEDS it turned away, but welfare fraud is so rampant there must be a better way!
 
Community Leader
Registered: 04-05-2002
Wed, 01-27-2010 - 10:42am

Well said. How the message is said often detracts from what the message is. When it comes off condescending, people are immediately offended.

There are time limits to being on welfare, and there was a major welfare reform under Clinton. I don't think many dispute the need for welfare and that it's being abused by some. The question is will it cost more to get those who abuse the system off, than to continue as is?