The Andre Bauer solution: Starve the poor, they’ll stop breeding
“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.”
– Andre Bauer, lieutenant governor of South Carolina
and candidate for S.C. governor.
It’s hard to know where to start with a statement like that. Apparently, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer believes that we should try to starve the poor out of existence. Deprive them of food and they will cease breeding: Problem solved, neat as that. (An audio version of Bauer’s remarks with additional context is available here. Hearing the vehemence with which Bauer makes the above statement only compounds its ugliness.)
For the moment, though, let’s set aside the pure viciousness of that statement and address what Bauer claims is his larger point. In effect, his thesis is that government assistance actually causes poverty because it subsidizes and encourages irresponsible actions. “In government, we continue to reward bad behavior,” he said. “Any time we give somebody money we’re rewarding them. We’re telling them to keep doing what they’re doing.”
Cut off those subsidies, in other words, and poverty will decrease.
In some circles, that’s a politically popular explanation for the problems of the underclass. So let’s take it seriously for a moment and try to test that analysis against what we know to be reality.
The first problem is history. Human poverty has existed in every culture and era, without exception. It is a constant of human existence, a pre-existing condition, so to speak. No matter what Bauer chooses to believe, government did not create it. South Carolina, for example, was mired in deep poverty long before school-lunch programs and welfare programs existed.
Second, if Bauer were right, we would expect that poverty would be lowest in those nations that do nothing to “subsidize bad behavior,” and highest in those countries where the government support system rewards such behavior. Yet if you look around the world, the opposite is true. Poverty levels are highest in those societies that make little attempt to address it, and lowest in those that offer some form of safety net.
We can also test Bauer’s thesis here at home, by comparing states that offer varying degrees of support for the poor. A liberal Northeastern state such as Connecticut, for example, offers a more extensive government support system to its poor than does a conservative state such as South Carolina. Mississippi offers even less support to its poor than does South Carolina. Put in Bauer’s terms, Connecticut rewards poverty while South Carolina and Mississippi try to penalize it.
If Bauer’s thesis is correct — if government support causes poverty — then Connecticut ought to be drowning in poor people while Mississippi has relatively few poor people. Yet in fact the exact opposite is true, and Census Bureau figures prove it. In Connecticut, which “subsidizes bad behavior” most heavily, 5.7 percent of families lived below the poverty line in 2007, while 16 percent did so in Mississippi, where poverty was least subsidized. (The figure in South Carolina was 11.2 percent; in Georgia it was 10.8 percent. And all those numbers are undoubtedly a lot higher in 2010.)
That data suggest that poverty is a much more complex phenomenon than Bauer would like to pretend, and is not in the least “caused” by government assistance.
Nor does government assistance encourage “breeding,” as Bauer so cruelly described it. It is demographic fact that in every culture and in every era throughout history, poorer families tend to have more children than affluent families. The presence or absence of government support has nothing to do with it. By the way, Bauer’s dismay is also nothing new; in cultures throughout time, the more affluent have always been dismayed by those “breeders” in the lower classes.
In his speech, Bauer recounts a second-hand tale of a 10-year-old child who supposedly gave birth to a baby of her own. If true, it is a tragic tale for both. Even if that particular story is false, the larger problem of teenage and out-of-wedlock births is very real and must be confronted honestly. However, that honest discussion must begin by acknowledging that the 10-year-old did not “breed” in response to financial inducements offered by the government.
Bauer did offer one concrete suggestion in his speech, proposing that parents be required to attend parent-teacher conferences and take drug tests or lose government benefits such as school lunch programs. If they want government benefits, he said, they should be required to act responsibly.
To any responsible person, that instinctively sounds great, but let’s think it through. The population that Bauer is attempting to target are by definition not responsible. They are parents who abuse drugs or simply don’t care enough about their children to ensure that they get a good education. Is that population going to change its behavior in response to a possible cutoff of free school lunches? Sadly, no. If they responded to that kind of thing, they wouldn’t be in that predicament in the first place.
And if you nonetheless go ahead and deny a free or subsidized lunch to a kid whose parents are on drugs, what have you accomplished? You condemn the child to hunger and malnutrition, heaping another significant problem on his or her already overburdened shoulders. You reduce the incentive for that child to go to school every day, where at least he or she knew food was available. And you make people like Andre Bauer feel better.
Bauer’s fundamental mistake is his assertion that the poor respond to market signals sent by the government. The real problem is that they don’t respond to market signals at all. Living in poverty ought to be a huge market signal, but for a variety of reasons, the poor are largely immune to it. Many of them don’t recognize what the signals are saying, they lack the education to know how to respond to them, and they have no faith that the market would reward them anyway.
Changing that is difficult; only a small percentage of those born into poverty escape it. Perhaps the best we can do is to champion programs — and the school lunch program is a perfect if small example — that increase the odds of escape for individuals mired in poverty.
One last point: In his speech and subsequent press release, Bauer complained that “political correctness” makes it impossible to discuss such issues publicly. I would suggest that rhetoric likening our fellow Americans to overbreeding stray animals makes it far more difficult to discuss these things rationally than does political correctness.
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404 comments Add your comment
Natalie
January 24th, 2010
9:43 pm
I am a social worker, and I can tell you firsthand, that there are many many people out there who take advantage of the “system”. I completely understand where Mr. Bauer is coming from. I have worked cases where a family of able-bodied men and women are collecting 8 social security checks, received food stamps, were given a free car, and education for free. I know firsthand that the current system only perpetuates a culture of poverty, as the children get to the age of 13-15 and have kids themselves, only to hop on the “Freed Lunch” government express. To all the people out there who think it is evil to have a constructive debate about this topic, well think about the fact that states are running out of cash, and if this problem continues to perpetuate itself, this entire country is going third world! Think about that!
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
9:46 pm
I have one child
SOAB! Or is it Eureka!!! You’ve been charging me child support for a whole softball team all these years and it’s refund time Bay-Be.
/I now return to your convo with Gordon while you await the process server.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
9:47 pm
LOL, RW — Ya got me!!!
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:47 pm
Damn, field goal range.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
9:48 pm
Natalie,
people have been abusing the system as long as the “system” has been in operation.
think about “that”.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
9:48 pm
I now return YOU…
(IHB)
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:52 pm
Out of field goal range.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
9:54 pm
Geez Andy, could you sit out OT.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
9:55 pm
OT.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:56 pm
This old man, he played one
He played knick-knack on my thumb
With a knick-knack paddywhack,
Give your dog a bone
This old man threw the ball to the other team.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
9:57 pm
Good one RW.
Hey Andy,
Please pick the Vikes in OT.
Thanks.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
9:59 pm
How’d the aints let this get to OT?
geez
Jay
January 24th, 2010
10:01 pm
Basically, the only good game of the NFL postseason.
That said, it is VERY good.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
10:01 pm
Hi Getalife
getalife
January 24th, 2010
10:08 pm
Crazy game Andy.
We need this first down .
Then kick a field goal.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
10:09 pm
Hi Midori
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
10:10 pm
Midori,
Mass sterilization? Being a little dramatic aren’t we? No one is forced to do anything, and have plenty of time to change their mind to avoid a heat of the moment decision. What purpose would my suggestion serve? Avoiding unwanted pregnancies. If a women can decide to have an abortion, then why not this? And one of the major points of Jay’s article is that people often do not think for themselves. You haven’t given one reason why this isn’t a good idea. We would save a lot of money but more importantly a lot of misery.
Midori
January 24th, 2010
10:14 pm
Well what were you advocating, Gordon?
Were there segments of the population of your choosing left out of your proposal?
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
10:15 pm
No Midori. Go back and read it.
I Report (-: You Whine )-: mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 24th, 2010
10:19 pm
I’m 2 for 2, heh.
Minnesota has never won a Super Bowl and they can try again next year.
bwa
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
10:20 pm
Congrats to the Saints. Lord I hate the way the pros do overtime.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
10:20 pm
Whew.
They have to play better to win the Super Bowl.
RLJ
January 24th, 2010
10:23 pm
No disagreement here (I’m conservative by the way) that Bauer’s comments are reprehensible. However, let’s not pretend that the right is the only side that is extreme in its lack of compassion and value of life. Peter Singer, a philosopher influential to many on the left, has suggested that the most responsible course of action for the elderly and extremely handicapped is to let them die so as not to drain society’s resources. Population control advocates say that the most responsible course of action for the environment is to limit the number of children per family with all that it implies about forced sterilization and abortions. By the way, that policy would affect the poor more than the wealthy.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
10:24 pm
Bourbon Street is going crazy
Jay
January 24th, 2010
10:26 pm
Peyton against Daddy’s Saints in the Super Bowl.
Only these ain’t his Daddy’s Saints.
Line: Even?
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
10:27 pm
Is it true that Reggie Bush said he’ll marry Kim Kardashian if the Saints win the Super Bowl? If so then the bettors among us better take that into consideration.
AmVet
January 24th, 2010
10:28 pm
Well at least there is a reason to watch the Super Bowl now.
Congrats New Orleans.
Hold that line, baby hold that line
Get up boys and hit ‘em one more time
We may be losing now but we can’t stop trying
So hold that line, baby hold that line
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OQmB9IsTNw4
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
10:30 pm
Jay B,
My guess is that Indy opens as a 6.5 to 7 point favorite.
getalife
January 24th, 2010
10:33 pm
I think the Colts will be favored because they have won before.
Jay
January 24th, 2010
10:33 pm
Really RW? I’d be surprised. I don’t know that Indy’s D can match the Saints’ O. But I agree about the OT rule.
Scout
January 24th, 2010
10:39 pm
“I think we have more machinery of government than is necessary, too many parasites living on the labor of the industrious.” –Thomas Jefferson, letter to William Ludlow, 1824
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
10:41 pm
Jay B,
Really in that really only means my guess about the oddsmakers. Keep in mind the game is in Miami and whichever team has star players inclined to solicit favors from undercover cops the night before the game can have a pretty big effect.
My actual prediction, and I know this better be close or I’ll never live it down, is that Indy will win 31-17.
Andrea L
January 24th, 2010
10:42 pm
He’s right. It’s about time somebody on the right grew some courage and stated the obvious.
samuel
January 24th, 2010
10:50 pm
There are relatively few people in this country who have never engaged in pre-marital, extra-marital or gay sex. The bitter, judgmental tone of Bauer is typical of a Southern conservative. Like too many Southern conservatives, Bauer thinks of morality only in terms of sexual behavior. The fact is, welfare spending for Fiscal Year 2010 is $61.5 billion, less than 2% of the total federal budget. Spending on food stamps is $47.5 billion, less than 1.5% of the total federal budget ($3.5 trillion). The TARP bailout ($700 billion) and the stimulus package ($787 billion) are almost 15 times the budget for welfare and food stamps combined. People like Bauer and other conservatives should do their research before going on their rants.
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
10:51 pm
The first odds site I’ve seen has the Colts opening as a 5 point favorite so my oddsmaker prediction is pretty close.
Gordon
January 24th, 2010
10:52 pm
Did you guys know that the team that kicks off in NFL OT games wins as often as the team that receives? In college, the team that wins the toss and goes on defense first wins more often. So actually the NFL way works out better. But I do hate it when one team never sees the ball in an NFL OT game.
Police Line Do Not Cross
January 24th, 2010
10:53 pm
Jackie:
I guess you finally got the true scuttlebutt on “Tet” and “Marine supply problems in V.N.” at my 6:22 post. Good for you. You’re a hard nut to crack ……………
There’s a lot more if you want to take the time to do the research.
Gerry Owen !
RW-(the original)
January 24th, 2010
11:00 pm
Gordon,
The talent differential between college and pro is so vast that it makes your stats nearly meaningless in comparison. Frankly college could use the pro rules and the pros could use the college rules with much fewer complaints in both camps.
liz
January 24th, 2010
11:02 pm
I don’t think he means starve anyone. But government handouts are another thing.
:|
January 24th, 2010
11:37 pm
Spoken like a true brat. What an arrogant load of nazi babble.
Jackie
January 24th, 2010
11:53 pm
@Police Line
If you only use the Wikipedia post for 1968, of course you will prove your point about the 1968 Tet Offensive. Try that same search for any year and the associated Tet offensive and you will get the same results. If you will look back at your previous posts, you will see YOU said that Tet only happened one time and it was in November.
Secondly, everyone that paid any attention to the Viet Nam experience, knows the Marines were put in a untenable position. The Marines were not designed for jungle warfare and they only know how to go forward. When they were pinned down at Khe Sahn, most notably, of course they were short of food water and other supplies. The military leaders made a decision to take a stand to defend a hill that was not strategically significant; they wanted to show that they upheld the “tradition of the Marines, to never retreat.” Another operation the 1st Cav was used to move the Marines out of the bear-trap they were in. And as far as food was concerned, the C-130’s brought in hot food and fresh water using touch-and-go techniques on the bombed out runway. Anytime you see that technique, this is where it was developed. So your argument about having/not having fresh food or water was due to the fact the Marines were surrounded and being pounded by more than 1,000 rockets, mortars and sapper attacks daily. The Air Force did yeoman’s work.
Given this information, you are trying to pick selected information to make your points. Does not make a cogent argument.
Jackie
January 24th, 2010
11:55 pm
@Police Line
Sorry for being away but it appears your supplied information is just as specious as previous.
southingtonian
January 25th, 2010
12:51 am
Josef and Kamchak, I suspect ‘Roger’ is a troll and suggest just ignoring his ignorance.
Policie Line Do Not Cross
January 25th, 2010
6:30 am
Jackie:
1) The decision to bottle up at Khe Sahn (instead of staying manuerverable) belongs to Army General Westmoreland. The Marines did NOT want to do that. And as far as Marines not being designed for jungle warfare I guess you never heard of all the island campaigns (i.e., Guadalcanal) in WWII. The Army in Vietnam has been designed for war in Europe! Good grief ……… you need some history lessons.
2) My personal experiences on supply problems, what I ate almost everyday, etc., etc. still stand.
3) You would argue with a signpost but that’s o.k.
4) Take care ……….. it’s been fun ………..over and out.
I Report :-) You Whine :-( mmm, mmmm, mmmmm!
January 25th, 2010
6:32 am
All this reverberates throughout the economy. Because we haven’t built nuclear plants, for example, we now rely on natural gas for 20 percent of our electricity. But burning natural gas in utility boilers is a complete waste of a resource. Natural gas’s best use is for home heating and cooking and as a feedstock for the chemical and fertilizer manufacturers. Yet gas is the only kind of conventional electric generation environmentalists will allow. Because of this new demand, natural gas prices quintupled after 2000. As a result, more than 100,000 jobs in the chemical industry moved abroad. Andrew Liveris, CEO of Dow Chemical, told Congress in 2003 that his company was shifting its “center of gravity” to Europe and the Middle East to be near gas supplies. “Dozens of plants across the country have closed their doors and gone away,” he testified. “They’re never coming back.” -AmSpec
Environmental terrorism has consequences.
Bad consequences.
TaxPayer
January 25th, 2010
6:56 am
I know why I don’t waste my time reading AmSpec. Those people couldn’t put together a cogent thought if they super-glued all their heads together.
Jimmy62
January 25th, 2010
7:41 am
Capitalism, and specifically American capitalism, has raised more people out of poverty around the world than any liberal or progressive program ever has or possibly could. Progressive ideas, on the other hand, have killed more people in the last 100 years than any other man-made cause of death.
stands for decibels
January 25th, 2010
7:42 am
I know why I don’t waste my time reading AmSpec. Those people couldn’t put together a cogent thought if they super-glued all their heads together.
Well, they are just spectators. (Permanently, one hopes.)
Although I gather that this latest regurgitation concerns the need to build nuke plants, to which I say–um, didn’t you guys control all three branches of government for a number of years? What were you doing then, besides invading and occupying and getting your jollies slaughtering people in a country that posed no serious threat to us? Anything?
Normal
January 25th, 2010
7:44 am
I wish I had been in on this one from the beginning because after reading it, I’m without words. I find it hard to believe that people can feel like that.
On a more serious note, I ask for a little spiritual aid to whatever diety you pray to. My youngest daughter had a heart attack (fluid around the heart). Doctors are searching for an infection somewhere.
Thanks for your help in advance.
Outhouse GoKart
January 25th, 2010
7:45 am
Sams club cuts a slew of em loose and I think US Airways? Anyway some airline tossed some pilots to the curb this weekend with more coming in the summer months.
I wonder what the current unemployment numbers are?
Outhouse GoKart
January 25th, 2010
7:45 am
Normal…what is her age?
stands for decibels
January 25th, 2010
7:46 am
I wonder what the current unemployment numbers are?
If only there were a federal organization tasked with polling state agencies and crunch the numbers to determine such things that I could find on my computer!
stands for decibels
January 25th, 2010
7:47 am
Normal, as a fellow parent you have my thoughts and as for prayers, I’ll petition the Republican Hummer-drivin’ baby-incineratin’ version of Jeebus if it’ll help.
Normal
January 25th, 2010
7:51 am
She is 31, next month…
stands for decibels
January 25th, 2010
7:52 am
Capitalism, and specifically American capitalism, has raised more people out of poverty around the world than any liberal or progressive program ever has or possibly could.
I know this is going to be hard to get your head around, but American capitalism exists because of liberal and progressive programs. Absent these, you’d just have one cycle of revolution and violence (with the attendant placing of industry captains’ heads on pikes) after another.
Outhouse GoKart
January 25th, 2010
7:54 am
31?! Wow…thats very young…hope everything turns out ok for her and yourself!
Outhouse GoKart
January 25th, 2010
7:55 am
sfd…if you could fetch them unemplermint numbers I’d be much obliged.
Normal
January 25th, 2010
7:55 am
Outhouse…Thanks…and you too sfd…
stands for decibels
January 25th, 2010
7:57 am
Outhouse, teach a man to fish, and he googles this thing called the United States Department of Labor on his Interwebs.
TaxPayer
January 25th, 2010
8:00 am
Normal,
I wish your daughter the best. Hang in there.
Jenifer
January 25th, 2010
8:04 am
Normal,
My thoughts and prayers are with your daughter, and you too.
Jenifer
January 25th, 2010
8:10 am
Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer Sues Over Plane Crash
Interesting.
http://www.topix.com/forum/city/gaffney-sc/TTHRN8KQFF5CO8T2P
Del
January 25th, 2010
8:10 am
Police, Given this guy’s 11:53pm post it’s clear he’s among the great pretenders. You were too kind to him in your reply. He never served in Vietnam combat. He doesn’t even know how to spell it.
Semper Fi
3rd. Recon 66-67
Granny Godzilla
January 25th, 2010
8:11 am
Normal
My thoughts and prayers are with you and your family.
Alice
January 25th, 2010
9:48 am
It is about time someone spoke the truth. I have been in public education for many years and I have said repeatedly that you can legislate teachers to death, but until you legislate parenting nothing will ever change. Maybe if we paid for the first child of a teen not fit to parent they will figure out how to prevent more. I don’t think we should keep rewarding them for “breeding” because they know they will continue to get more money, while their children suffer from lack of emotional and mental stimulation. I say go Andre, keep up the good work!
Kimberly
January 25th, 2010
9:54 am
As if I need another reason to be embarrassed to say I live in South Carolina. Andre Bauer’s insensitive remarks highlight his lack of understanding of complex issues such as poverty and how it relates to health care, veterans issues, subsidized food and race; his failure to live out his faith with words and actions that honor or understand Jesus’s words and actions; and his failure to grasp that correlation is not causation.
My husband and I and our six children (I’m a breeder and not poor, but I digress) just spent yesterday afternoon at a local park feeding the hungry. It is always a good experience for us. We are so recognized there now that the kids are often brought gifts by those coming for a hot meal – simple things like bags of popcorn or books. We always feel that we walk away with more than we have given. I wonder if Andre Bauer has ever interacted with anyone outside of his elitist circles. I suspect not. You cannot make statements such as his and have broken bread with those who have fallen on hard times. And if you have and still feel as Mr. Bauer does, I fail to see how you can identify yourself as a Christian.
Gosh it sure is hard to live here sometimes.
Susan
January 25th, 2010
10:09 am
There are way too many people with a cel phone, cable tv, internet, ect getting a free or reduced lunch. If you truly can not pay $10.00 a week for lunch how in the world can you afford these other things. If you get help from the goverment you should have to do something in return for it. I don’t think having a drug test and going to teacher meetings is too much to ask. And if you have 1 child that you can’t afford then why in the world why should the goverment help you with the 2nd child you have? I was raised to believe that you work for what you get, if you are already working 40 hrs a week and still need help, the fine you are doing your part. But if not you need to do some type of charity for 40 hrs a week to earn your hand out.
Beth Robertson
January 25th, 2010
11:25 am
My father was a very intelligent man, he told me that we (The First People) fed the stray white people (animals), you know why? Because they were not only starving and freezing to death but they were thieves, stealing from our brothers’. Our ancestors considered them unintelligent. In hindsight our brothers’ should not have not fed them. You know why, because they breed. Our brothers’ facilitaded the problem when we gave these white people an ample food supply. Some of the elders said, “they will reproduce, especially the ones that do not think too much beyond taking everything from us (genocide and colonization)”.
My father never understood them and neither do I.
Beth Robertson
Dine’ (Navajo) and Mdewakanton-Wahpeton (Dakotah Sioux)
Mena
January 25th, 2010
11:28 am
In listening to Bauer’s comments, he makes a very common mistake of claiming that a correlation (e.g. free lunch / low test scores) equals causation. The low test scores that may be seen in poorer-area schools are due to many different factors, and its is both simple-minded and ignorant to assume that receiving free lunch is the root cause. To anyone with a college education, the “persuasive evidence” given by Bauer sounds like ignorant bs.
t4
January 25th, 2010
12:14 pm
Instead of looking at Bauer’s comment from the poverty angle- look at it from the economic collapse we’ree in. If the govthad not stolen out money and given it to bankers, who then gave themselves over $100 billionin bonuses and we’re told you’re too big too fail. We would not have the mess we’re in. The financial meltdown was no metldown – it was a collusion govt and a sector that all parties we’re assocaites of to give money so they could enrich themselves at our expense. Look at the numbers and the secrecy and who knows who andthebonuses. How could Goldman pay back $14 billion in a year if they were really in a hole? Notice that the bonuses are exactly the amount of profit they made – thsi si not coincidence. I think it’s bankers we have stop reproducingd
SC Lt. Gov. Compares Poor People to ‘Stray Animals’ | TheBuzzCincy - 1230 WDBZ
January 25th, 2010
2:11 pm
[...] that we should try to starve the poor out of existence,” Jay Bookman writes for the Atlanta-Journal Constitution. “Deprive them of food and they will cease breeding: Problem solved, neat as that.” [...]
Police Line Do Not Cross
January 25th, 2010
3:19 pm
Del:
I know ………. but some people amuse me. Rocks & Shoals would do him good.
steve bickel
January 25th, 2010
5:04 pm
Gawd bless America and somebody lock this idiot away-what a dumbass!
steve bickel
January 25th, 2010
5:09 pm
ps. Most of us had trouble understanding exponentials and economics in school–no bank bailout meant no loans which correlates to small business failures. Now is the time to TARP local banks and credit unions so your community will grow.
Breaking News: Lt. Gov. Bauer Solves Childhood Obesity Problem « HYSTERICAL RAISINS
January 25th, 2010
7:43 pm
[...] Jay Bookman at The Atlanta Journal-Constitution (blog): Apparently, Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer believes that we should try to starve the poor out of [...]
Moxie
January 25th, 2010
8:46 pm
Of the two Bauer boys, I like Jack. He only tortures bad dudes.
K Finn
January 25th, 2010
9:44 pm
If his grandmother was not educated and he is not smart, then this is a genetic issue of learning limitations and he should stop breeding.
tazzle
January 25th, 2010
10:10 pm
I was one of the poor who bred and who had kids on subsidized lunches at school while I went to college to get my nursing degree. Since then, as an RN, what I’ve paid in taxes has given the government back what my children were fed with massive interest. My laziness and breeding habits aside, I think that Bauer has some nerve to complain about those who live off government largess when he so obviously does himself as a government employee. And manages to abuse the public trust with his little lawbreaking traffic stunts while on the dole.
GOP: now & in the future - Page 6 - TeakDoor.com - The Thailand Forum
January 26th, 2010
2:57 am
[...] comment starts at 1:52 The Andre Bauer/Republican solution a copy and paste __________________ Keep your friends close, and your enemies [...]
robinwhi
January 26th, 2010
9:18 am
Wonderful article – I only wish you provided the references for the percentages you provided.
DCW
January 26th, 2010
9:54 am
Jay, your logic is flawed (a not uncommon trait when liberals attempt to use it – no offense). But Missippippi is far poorer than Connecticut. It would make perfect sense that their transfers to the poor are lower than that of CT.
But just look at the evidence. Those that receive transfers will only work when the return from working has a significant marginal benefit over the transfers. Most choose to take the money and stay home. Those are the facts. Attacking someone for an extremely poor choice of analogies, does not change them.
krew krew
January 26th, 2010
10:05 am
Bad way to express an awful truth in our entitlement society.
moonraven
January 26th, 2010
10:47 am
Wait a minute………….I’m one of families receiving food stamps, my husband works his ass off and we still don’t have enough money to pay our bills and food. We do without many of the things most people have as necessities. Beyond income tax we pay many other taxes like everyone else, we would have plenty for our family if they (the Gov’t ) didn’t take our money from us. So ask yourselves this? “Why do they take our money-that we need for food-(taxes) and then give it back the in the form of food stamps? I’ll tell you why, Our country is quickly turning into a Socialist Gov’t.
DCW
January 26th, 2010
10:56 am
moonraven – they don’t take from you and give back to you. They take from me and give to you.
NJ
January 26th, 2010
2:06 pm
Hee hee. Thatcher drove the British economy into the ground, and it took the Labor Party to bring it back.
As a BRITISH magazine points out:
A theme of this special issue of the New Statesman is forgiveness. Writing on page 12, Oona King asks, rhetorically, if she can forgive Mrs Thatcher for all that she did and said. For Paul Routledge, whose article begins on page 26, there is no such self-questioning. There is only certainty – Thatcher is, and always will be, the unforgiven.
Our view is more nuanced. We recognise that the Labour Party was defeated at the end of the 1970s and that a social transformation was necessary. Our final verdict, however, must be this: Margaret Thatcher is guilty as charged.
http://www.newstatesman.com/uk-politics/2009/02/margaret-thatcher-mrs-labour
Gracia Carroll
January 26th, 2010
2:09 pm
Jay Bookman, thanks for an excellent difference of opinion. Maybe one day America will get it together. With all the suffering going on now they still don’t have a clue. A house divided cannot stand, prosper, florish, grow, nor be blessed.
NJ
January 26th, 2010
3:34 pm
Blame it on Reaganomics moonraven. I know many Georgians whose kids are also on Peachcare. Even those working in places that GIVE health insurance because they are not paid enough to afford to put their kids on their own insurance.
They deny that this is “welfare” but in fact, it is. Fact is that they also take from Moonraven and GIVE to DCW. The government BORROWS from payroll taxes so that those who make more money have to pay LESS in INCOME taxes. Expecially since the Bush tax cuts. Money was borrowed from the Social Security projected surpluses to give tax cuts to those who earn FAR more than the top salary that payroll taxes are collected on.
Simply put. a person who got a 100,000 dollar tax cut was given eight times more than he ever could have paid OUT in the payroll taxes used to fund the Bush Tax cuts.
Seven people paid for the tax cuts given to the top two percent of income earners.
NJ
January 26th, 2010
3:36 pm
No matter how conservatives try to twist the facts, our existing tax codes are written to favor those at the top end, at the expense of those at the bottom end.
The way to put an end to that is called a “living wage” Even Adam Smith called for this in his “Wealth of Nations”
dcw
January 26th, 2010
8:25 pm
NJ – As long as you blame everyone else for your failures, Well…
maggie
January 26th, 2010
10:14 pm
THOGWUMMPY – I think you’ll be seeing it very soon. The Neo-cons and the Progressives are the right and left arms of the same monster. They’ve been moving us in that direction for over 20 years, and it’s about to get ugly. I hope some of these people wise up and realize they’re being played for fools by the media, and the phony 2 party system.
Wake up America. You’ve been sold down the river by both sides. Start preparing now.
Bev
January 27th, 2010
1:58 pm
I do not have a problem with the fact that REPUBLICAN Lt. Governor Andre Brauer may (allegedly) be gay. I am, however, horrified by his lack of humanity. If the people of So. Carolina have any dignity at all, then they should collectively run him out of office; it is their duty, so that this mindset should never rear its ugly head again. The people of South Carolina have a double whammy–Sanford & Bauer.
Oh and to add insult to injury, with that open-gaping wound that he calls his mouth, he makes a public apology to the dogs. Such ignorance and hubris! SHAME ON YOU ANDRE BRAUER. Your represent the least among us. You despicable coward!
Bev of Boston, MA
P.S. I wonder if Fox News had any coverage on this story? If so, I bet it was a passing blurb that only a dog with high-pitched hearing could hear!
Bev
January 27th, 2010
2:05 pm
To “RLG:” Peter Singer is a sicko, too and does not represent the majority of Democrats, whose social policies for the least among us are abhorred by the most Republicans.
Bev of Boston, MA
Bev
January 27th, 2010
2:21 pm
Furthermore, “RLJ:” Although I do not agree with most of Singer’s humanistic approach to life and death, I do agree with his notion regarding the “Haves” and “Havenots, ” This philosophy, of course, escapes the mindset of most Republicans!
Bev of Boston, MA
Read below:
“In “Famine, Affluence, and Morality”, one of Singer’s best-known philosophical essays, he argues that the injustice of some people living in abundance while others starve is morally indefensible. Singer proposes that anyone able to help the poor should donate part of their income to aid poverty relief and similar efforts. Singer reasons that, when one is already living comfortably, a further purchase to increase comfort will lack the same moral importance as saving another person’s life.”
“Singer himself reports that he donates 25 percent of his salary to Oxfam and UNICEF. In “Rich and Poor”, the version of the aforementioned article that appears in the second edition of Practical Ethics, his main argument is presented as follows:
“If we can prevent something bad without sacrificing anything of comparable significance, we ought to do it; absolute poverty is bad; there is some poverty we can prevent without sacrificing anything of comparable moral significance; therefore we ought to prevent some absolute poverty.”
Bill of PA
January 27th, 2010
3:15 pm
I suspect that most of this jerk’s meals, vacations, entertainment, etc are free to him due to the generosity of taxpayers and lobbyists. He qualifies to be a governor, but only in South Carolina, where their breeding takes place on a continent wide scale, at taxpayer’s expense, once they find their way off the Appalachian Trail.
The gay deceivers « The Mex Files
January 28th, 2010
12:27 am
[...] In South Carolina, Lieutenant Governor André Bauer said the state should not be providing nutritional assistance to schoolchildren, lest they breed. Bauer, attempting to “clarify” his remarks said his reference to feeding stray [...]
Andre Bauer: Please Don’t Feed The Poor at Deceiver.com
January 28th, 2010
8:49 am
[...] tells me it doesn’t work that way. Jay Bookman of the Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more: We can test Bauer’s thesis here at home, by comparing states that offer varying degrees [...]
WideAwake
January 29th, 2010
10:34 am
Feed the fetus! Starve the Child!
The best the god-fearing GOPers can come up with.
The child comes to school hungry whether mommy or daddy feeds him the night before. The school should refuse food–even a stray dog can get a bone.
David Hobson
February 9th, 2010
3:52 pm
Would the Companies, Farmers and States be better severed if they didn’t benefit from Government subsidies? The real problem here is a lack of understanding of the role of Government at the Local, State and Federal Level. There is too much anti-government rhetoric by some politicians mainly on the Right that people have forgot that “We the People” make up our Government; Doesn’t it make since to attack yourself? If the Right doesn’t believe in our form of Government perhaps they shouldn’t seek political office.
Are you KIDDING??? (Warning….soap box) « Virginia’s Blog
February 12th, 2010
11:09 pm
[...] said we should stop feeding the poor so they will stop “breeding.” Read a post on this here. You may guess it is “hunger time” again in my (academic) life, and in conjunction with [...]
shane franks
February 15th, 2010
8:09 pm
if you had any decency you would show the whole truth and not parse words. Andre’ is talking about issues most are afraid to talk about. the cycle of dependency has exploded in the last 50 years. Two generations have lived off the system and have learned to live a life dependent upon the Federal and State governments. Money isn’t there anymore to endlessly support the “Great Society” of LBJ. The poor need encouragement to get up and try and not discouragement to wait at home for a check to enable there dependence. The words Andre’ used were true. the only thing he did wrong was use the wrong metaphor to explain a point that is at the core of our present and future budget problems. People when I grew up did everything to keep from getting public assistance. Now public assistance isnt assistance…It is expected as a Right!!!. America has to wake up before it is too late. The Federal government is writing checks we as a state cant cash!!!….Stimulus slush funds dont create jobs. Tax revenue contributions from working people do. We need to cut taxes and create jobs the correct way and encourage people to see that they have to be responsible for their actions and for their children. The governing body isnt a Nanny.