Rock Bottom

Bauer never said anything about taking food from children, nor did he compare the needy to stray animals. He simply said welfare benefits should be taken away from lazy recipients who won't even lift a finger to help themselves or their children. And the American taxpayers agree with him.

Follow the link to his actual statement and you'll see for yourself. Let your viewers and readers hear his exact words as they were spoken -- rather than selections taken out of context -- by clicking http://www.greenvilleonline.com/ which loads the Greenville News homepage. Please scroll down, looking on the right side, until you see Latest Videos and his name. Clicking his picture will allow you to listen to his remarks, which lasted almost three minutes.

Another route would be to click here: Bauer audio file from town hall



Andre Bauer offers additional comments on “breeding a culture of dependency”

“Big difference between being truly needy and truly lazy”


At a forum this week, I spoke out in favor of finding ways to break the government’s cycle of handouts and dependency.

Yes, I believe government is “breeding a culture of dependency” which has grown out of control, and frankly, amounts to little more than socialism, paid for by hard-working, tax-paying families… against their wishes.

At the same time, I feel strongly that we can and should help our neighbors who are truly needy. In fact, I’ve spent much of my last seven years helping those in need… traveling the state to help provide blankets, shoes, food, and health care to those who need it most.

However, there’s a big difference between being truly needy and truly lazy.

My suggestion to require parents of children who receive free lunches to attend parent-teacher conferences is simply a common-sense idea to help break the cycle of dependency, while at the same time providing a better education and a brighter future for the children affected.

Requiring drug testing for adults receiving tax-funded benefits is also just good, plain, common sense.

Yes, I am speaking out for such requirements, even though they may be “politically incorrect” in the eyes of the news media. It’s better for the children, it’s better for the taxpayers, and, in the end, offering a hand up instead of a hand out will be better for those who have become taxpayer dependents.

Americans are a compassionate people who will always help their brothers who are truly in need. But we cannot and will not allow those who are simply “riding the system” to continue to do so without consequence.

Warren Buffet once said, “No one washes a rental car.” He’s right. We must find ways to instill some sense of responsibility or consequence into those who are now a part of the cycle of automatic hand-outs.

Generational welfare is bad for the people on it and bad for the state of South Carolina.

Hear my exact words as they were spoken -- rather than selections taken out of context -- by clicking http://www.greenvilleonline.com/ which loads the Greenville News homepage. Please scroll down, looking on the right side, until you see Latest Videos and my name. Clicking my picture will allow you to listen to my remarks, which lasted almost three minutes.

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Nice job Hambrick way to totally misconstrue what Bauer said.You should be fired

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Greg, as always, you've done a fine job of reporting the news. I've read and reread the Greenville News piece and find it even more damaging to what's left of Bauer's reputation than what you've posted. Kudos to you!!

Now, I do notice something interesting in the otherwise boring post by "frank 2010" -- why does his last paragraph become 1st person, while the rest of the post is 3rd? /:

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LazyBoi will do ANYTHING to keep his name in the media spotlight even if it means baring his butt to any takers who love to scratch and sniff before fisting.
Hey BauerBoi...

I want a JOB! Do YOU want a JOB!

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I am confused, if you qualify for free lunch dosent your family recieves food stamps. Why should tax payers pay to feed kids twice? It is a sad situation, but it is the parents responsibility. Just because it is sad dosent mean it is the taxpayers obligation. Also our society is raising people to depend on the govt. Many from birth to death never have a job totally living off welfare. You can not say this dosent happen because Igrew up next door to a family like this....and they are still there......still on welfare.

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While I heartily agree that parental participation in school has very positive effects on children, Bauer's suggestion is a little naive. I'll grant that there are parents who don't attend these meetings, but from personal experience, I also know that many of these can't attend. Parent-teacher conferences are arranged at the teachers' convenience, not the parent and a great many of these parents do not have the resources to accommodate the teacher. PTA meetings are usually in the evening, but low income parents have to deal with public transportation and working jobs that the rest of us don't want because the jobs cut into our evenings. If the guardian is a grandmother, imagine trying to get several small children on a CARTA bus and then attending to them because no on-site babysitting arrangements exist. The parent or guardian cannot arrange for a babysitter at home because there is no money to pay the sitter and no realistically potential sitters in their neighborhood.

Before creating a set of rules, there has to be a great deal of thought to insuring that the rules can be followed.

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Sounds to me like Bauer is just shooting his mouth off. I don't see him offering alternatives, like compulsory work for the city/county, with child care provided. I wonder if he could put up with the alternatives if he did cut people's welfare. Like an overnight increase in the number of robberies, while people resort to anything just to survive. Does he realise how much it costs to house people in prison compared to paying them paltry amountsd of welfare? Whose taxes does he plan to squander on the likely resulting number of prison inmates once he cuts people's welfare?

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It seems to me that providing school lunches to needy children would be the kind of welfare policy that even the most conservative individual could support. It offers an opportunity to help children without giving their parents an opportunity to misuse the aid. Efficient, abuse-resistant help is the best kind our government can give. So why, of all the programs out there, pick on the school lunches?

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To those who keep saying he didn't compare people on public assistance to stray animals: he used a metaphor, and if you don't understand that, then the public education system in South Carolina has failed you. If he wants to begin an honest dialog about poverty and dependency, then he picked a heck of a way to start, by polarizing the two camps and solidifying the destructive stereotypes that keep any kind of dialog from happening. I am thankful, however, that he said out loud what most conservatives would only say among like-minded friends. Now we know who Mr. Bauer really is.

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You can't rewrite history and you can't make a sweet pussy out of a sour puss like watsHisname? Oh, yeah,
Dimwitty LtGuv...who NEVER would serve in any useful Lt. kinda weigh in the US military because his hair might get pushed out of a politically correct shape similar to the rest of the mob of money-honey pushers in the SC Legislature. Yup. The troot between the beady little rat-eyes.

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Butt then... does the little twerp NEED a brain when the Legistlatshure wants to tell the Office of Guv WAT to think, WHEN (if) to think and WHO to thank...? If they don't want him for his brain, surely this doesn't mean they want him for his FACE? BEND over and pickUP tha soap, son...
hmmmmmmmm.

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