South Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer is being ridiculed for a recent speech where he appears to compare poor people to stray cats and connect having “ample food supply” to increasing welfare demand.
Here is the key quote:
“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.”
Perhaps his grandma should have also told him not to quote her on this one.
Almost sixty percent of kids in South Carolina participate in free or reduced cost lunches. Bauer insists that those free lunches appear to be driving down test scores:
“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.” … “You go to a school where there’s an active participation of parents, and guess what? They have the highest test scores. 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.’”
I just hope that he does not read this blog and see the availability of haggis in a can for lunchroom cafeterias, here.
By the way, have you noticed that the number of truly moronic statements goes up dramatically with the free availability of microphones. I can show you a bar graph where politicians near free mics have the worst ideas in any state.
Swarthmore mom:
I heard about a study (done I believe by HUD) that showed Head Start is not very effective. I haven’t read it, but it does not surprise me. A good many government programs are not very effective. Well intentioned but not effective.
sWARTHMOR MOM AND RCAMPBELL:
I may not be so evolved, I think poverty is caused by a couple of things:
1. lack of education
2. lack of a work ethic
3. low intelligence
4. physical or mental disability
5. government policies that lead to depressed economies and lack of incentives.
some of the problem can be blamed on the individual, some on pure chance and some on governmental policies that repress individual incentive and the economy as a whole.
In other words there is a segment of the poor that can help it and don’t mind being poor and who live off the government and the charity of people of good will. And then there is the segment of the population that is poor through circumstances beyond their control. In my opinion this is the segment that needs help to pull themselves out of poverty.
My comment about government policies was made because in my opinion government initiatives to combat poverty are not very effective. I would guess the welfare practices of SC probably exacerbate this situation. I would also assume there is a residual element of racism based on his comments about feral cats breeding.
I am of the opinion the south, through their Jim Crow laws and personal animosity toward blacks, has caused most of the lingering ill will blacks hold toward whites. It is with good cause, the way blacks were treated was an abomination of every moral code ever written in the history of man. Mr. Bauer should be made to expand on his quote and resignation seems fitting if he cant properly explain his statement. I for one think it was purely racist and of ill intent.
Duh,
Let’s be generous and assume that that’s the point the Lt. Gov. was trying to make. Free lunches feeds the problem of absent parents how exactly?
A stupid statement is a stupid statement. This was a stupid statement.
The weird part is when Obama talks about taxing the banks, many people are outraged. They want to protect them from a minimal tax increase.
Corruption is the main breeding phenomenon these daze … emails leaked to Reuters shows that the Fed became a welfare agency for foreign banks, and sent tens of billions to foreign banks under the cover of the AIG debacle. Then deliberately covered it up.
The rich banksters are the welfare queens today.
http://blogdredd.blogspot.com/2010/01/banker-jekyll-will-hyde-your-money-5.html
Duh Are you against Head Start?
Gyges,
Good points, but I interpreted the moral to be that if all you do is feed the problem, it will continue to repeat itself. I am sympathetic to families in which both parents must work in order for the family to survive. And I know we’re talking about real survival here, not just in order to afford luxury.
Cats don’t provide an example as well as dogs would. We humans are, at our most basic, pack animals. The pack influence effects us from birth. At school, the pack influences a childs behavior. Many childen will behave differently at school due to influence from the pack. A family that lacks a pack leader will become very frustrated and end up having many problems.
AY,
How many times does one need to ask that you refrain from personal attacks? If you cannot refrain from personal attacks, please refrain from commenting.
You are correct in suggesting that both parents needing to work to support the family unit will have an effect on the time spent interacting with the child. However, when the parents are working, I would assume that someone is watching the child. The interaction required to kick start learning in babies is not limited to a parent as the source. Those providing infant childcare could be of great benefit.
Mr. Lt. Governor, I want you to repeat after me: Correlation does not equal causation.
I wonder how many of these parents that Mr. Bauer wants to punish are forced to work more than one job apiece?
Duh,
His grandmother wasn’t really right about the cats. Feral cats don’t really have a problem getting food from other sources, like native song birds. That is why they’re a serious ecological problem as an introduced species. While I wouldn’t encourage feeding strays, it doesn’t have a huge impact on their breeding patterns. Unless you feed them so you can detain them to have them spade and neutered. In which case good on you.
And Duh,
Unlike the elite of society usually both parents have to work to survive. Not everyone is annotated as you and your clan.
“a bad choice of words. but he is right about children needing parental supervision and involvement in their schooling.”
I was thinking the same thing. His grandmother was right. Unfortunately, studies have shown that the “spark” that sets children on the path to better grades starts long before they begin school. It starts with interaction while still in the crib.
Swarthmore mom
1, January 25, 2010 at 8:11 am
Byron I thought you did not want more government programs.
SM
I was thinking along those same lines. Byron’s welcomed comment was quite, well, evolved. Well said, Byron.
Some people forget what is truly a Traditional Government “Function” and the GOP’s have tried to figure out a way to get that slice of the pie as well. Police, Roadways, Water/Sewer, School, Courts etc.
Ay I agree with you. You can see the results of privatization in Texas. I don’t like it because of the class system it creates.
Swartzmore mom,
Thank you for your input.
I think maybe he have more problem if he went hiking the trials of his boss. Most people in the south equate anything that the government does as a tax or burden on their pocket books.
They tried schooling under Plessey V Ferguson and it was shown that it did not work. Then Brown V Bd of Ed II, shoved it down the throats. While the South was being monitored the schools up North did not get quite the scrutiny and we were assured that they did the same things as the South was accused of doing.
Therefore it is my opinion that when it comes to anything to do with schools the South has an Opinion on and unfortunately it is the children that must suffer.
The No Kids Left behind and other unfunded mandates have hurt education worse than if they had not been tinkered with. This was another stab at the unions and to open public school funding to go to charter/private school.
I think the Lt. Gov misses the point of his duty to his constituents.
LBJ can be faulted for a lot of things but he was poor as a child and brought electricity, water in the rural areas.
Some people forget what is truly a Traditional Government is a the GOP’s have tried to figure out a way to get that slice of the pie as well. Police, Roadways, Water/Sewer, School, Courts etc.
They have tried to privatize each and every aspect. Thats why I think Tax Free Municipal Bonds should all be tax free regardless of the amount of interest earned. They usually pay the lowest return but give the greatest return to society as a whole.
Byron I thought you did not want more government programs.
a bad choice of words. but he is right about children needing parental supervision and involvement in their schooling.
Also if 60% of the children in his state require free or reduced cost lunches their is something wrong with the way things are being done. That seems like a large amount of people without jobs. The national unemployment figures range from 10-17% depending on who you believe.
I don’t know anything about how SC government works but based on Mark Sanford, I will assume it is pretty piss poor. Maybe Mr. Bauer should spend some time analyzing why 60% of the children in his state are near or below the poverty line. And put the blame on government policies instead of individuals.
It actually seems as if a republican can do or say whatever in the South and get elected or re-elected. Look at David Vitter. He is ahead in the polls.
Now this is the Republican Party that I have come to know. In one of the poorest states, the Lt. Gov. thinks so highly of his “base”! It is a wonder that these guys actually win election in these states.
A rebuttal:
The Andre Bauer solution: Starve the poor, they’ll stop breeding
12:17 pm January 24, 2010, by Jay Bookman.
http://blogs.ajc.com/jay-bookman-blog/