SC Lt Governor likens welfare to feeding stray animals.
When things looked their darkest for Gov. Mark Sanford — when he was in danger of being impeached for running off to Argentina to see his mistress — his best insurance policy may well have been South Carolina’s lieutenant governor, Andre Bauer.
Lawmakers knew if they removed Sanford, they would end up with Bauer, a fiercely ambitious Republican with a reputation for reckless and immature behavior.
Now Bauer has folks shaking their heads again, after he likened government assistance to the poor to feeding stray animals.
At a town hall meeting Thursday, Bauer, who isrunning for governor in his own right now that Sanford is term-limited,said: “My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told meas a small child to quit feeding stray animals. You know why? Becausethey breed! You’re facilitating the problem if you give an animal or aperson ample food supply. They will reproduce, especially ones thatdon’t think too much further than that.”
Democrats and others railed at him.(1)
(1) Here’s why: According to the University of South Carolina’s Arnold School of Public Health, Consortium for Latino Immigration Studies, South Carolina’s foreign-born population grew faster than any other state between 2000-2005. The Consortium reports that the number of Hispanics in South Carolina is greatly undercounted by census enumerators and may be more than 400,000.