South Carolina Lt. Governor Compares School Children on Assisted Lunch Program to “Stray Animals”

South Carolina's Lt. Governor compares children and families reliant on reduced price and free school lunch programs to "stray animals."

Compassionate conservative?  That is all so last decade.

"Pro-life" politicians supporting policies that actually "promote the life and wellbeing" of people walking the earth today?

Never happens.

But still, when one of these guys shows his unspun true colors, it still shocks.

And I am shocked, if not surprised that in a recent speech, South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer compared people whose children receive free and reduced-price school
lunches to "stray animals that are fed handouts." 

According to the Southern Political Report, Bauer, a Republican candidate for governor, is "floating the idea that too many people get locked into unproductive
lives because they receive various wealth entitlements without making
any sacrifices or doing anything to better themselves."

The State.com reports that last Friday, Bauer said giving food to needy people means encouraging
dependence. It also gives the recipients a license to have children who
will also be dependent on public aid, he said.

"My grandmother
was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to
quit feeding stray animals," Bauer told a Greenville-area crowd. "You
know why? Because they breed."

Wow. And here I thought South Carolina was all about breeding because right-wing conservatives in the state have gone out of their way the past few years to deny women access to birth control, to fund abstinence-only programs that do not work, and to pass fetal personhood initiatives, 24-hour waiting periods and other roadblocks for women seeking to end unintended pregnancies.

Andre: I am confused.

Then again, clarity may not be his strong suit.

“…We’ve got more people voting for a living than we do working for a
living,” said Bauer.

Huh?

But, notes SPR, "it remains
to be seen how South Carolinians will respond to his harsh analogy.  Fifty-eight percent of students in the state’s
public schools participate in the free and reduced-price lunch program.
"

Nearly 20 percent of South Carolinians are without health insurance,
among the highest percentages of uninsured in the country.  You’ve got one governor
who "takes a hike" to Argentina and a Lt. Governor who apparently
profoundly disrepects more than half of the state’s population.  Is it
possible that Bauer’s focus on school lunch assistance programs as wildly outlandish "entitlements" masks his inability to think of actual solutions to the state’s mounting problems?

I guess keeping children and their families too hungry to make it to the polls could be seen as a potential political strategy for Mr. Bauer.   Because somewhere, somehow it must be "pro-life" to allow hungry children to experience stunted growth and mental development because they are unable to afford breakfast.