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: 11-13-2009
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 10:45am

Dig the graves?

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 11:14am
Yeah, they use to cremate them. But in the last 4-5 years, more and more people weren't claiming relatives. The state was overwhelmed. My youngest son lost a friend about 3 years ago. His family couldn't afford a regular casket. The young man was buried in a very thin wooden casket. It was so sad. Alot of the neighbors took up a collection so he could have a funeral.
iVillage Member
Registered: 11-13-2009
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 11:28am

He gets $14.00 in food stamps.


Is that a typo?

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 11:32am
No. No typo. He use to get $10.00. That's Ten Dollars. Heck, my Mom applied and they told her she'd get $25.00. She told them to forget it, it wasn't worth it to her.
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-30-2007
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 12:21pm

I've raised two son's and a daughter. The one thing I always told my sons was, If a young lady tell you she's on the pill, Don't believe it. If you can't cover it up, Don't use it.

Men have never been made to hold up their end of parenting. Not all men. Until recently, if a man walked out on his kids, to bad, so sad! Trying to collect child support? Good luck! I don't think that putting them in jail is the solution. I'd feel better if they had (for a lack of a better word) a chain gang. You work until all the back support is paid up. Then I'd bet that people would think twice about makin a baby!

I hear so many people complain about welfare, but rarely hear anything about the absent parent! Let's start making them feel the pain!

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 12:38pm

Bauer doesn't represent all Republicans or Christian Conservatives.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 12:46pm

Might I say that Bauer has the right to vote for whom he pleases.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 12:47pm
I totally agree!
iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 12:57pm

I saw that also and am amazed that they are still able to stay in business.

iVillage Member
Registered: 05-23-2008
Thu, 01-28-2010 - 1:03pm

Yes, thank God for Welfare and a good hand up from the government when we are down in a hole.


I was also helped by Welfare when my hubby ran off with another woman leaving me with a baby and small child.