Republican Lt. Governor Andre Bauer is running for the office of governor of South Carolina. At a town hall meeting while stating his position on the state of the welfare system, Bauer said his grandmother "told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Because they breed."
He also wants to compel parents of students who receive free lunches or reduced price lunches to attend all parent-teacher conferences and PTA meetings or "bam, you lose your benefits." He failed to mention, or perhaps he doesn't know, that people do not have to be on welfare to qualify for the free or reduced price lunch programs.
I guess that means that if you are a single parent working at a minimum wage job and your boss won't give you time off or if you can't afford to take the time off and you miss your parent-teacher conference or you have to miss a PTA meeting where the topic of discussion is the latest fund raiser, your children could be denied lunch.
When critical reaction to his remark comparing welfare recipients to stray animals and his plan to stop children from receiving lunch if the parents don't comply with his rules began, he back-pedaled a bit. "Maybe the metaphor isn't the best metaphor." (the grandmother anecdote)He also said that he didn't mean that he would take food out of the mouths of children but rather that the parents should lose welfare benefits.
Most of the comments about the story agreed with Lt. Governor Bauer. I was left with the impression that most of those commenting thought that the majority of welfare recipients are black. No one said anything so blatant; I hope I read something into it that wasn't there. I wonder if I am the only person who thinks the "They breed" comment to be just a touch racist.
I do agree that the present welfare system should be re-vamped. There are too many undeserving people taking advantage of the system just as there are too many medical
professionals taking advantage of the Medicare system. I'm just not sure that the school lunch program is the place to start. The welfare of children should be our most important priority.
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I think a referendum is in order to remove him from office.
What is going to do about grannies like me who don't get much Socisl Security because we stayed home and raised kids and went to parent-teacher conferences.
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