Another SC Politician Strikes Again

If you are a South Carolina tax-paying and voting resident, you should be absolutely ashamed of yourself right now.  To say this has been a bad year for elected officials there is an understatement.  First, your state governor cheated on wife with a woman in Argentina.  Then, Congressman Joe Wilson delivered the now infamous, "You lie," during President Obama's health care speech.  And the latest incident involves Leuitenant Governor, Andre Bauer (video below).  I am sure you have heard one portion of his comments.  PLEASE watch this 3 minute video with his FULL audio comments before sharing your opinion.



Watched it?  Good!  Surprisingly, there are moments of wisdom in the audio he enlightened us with his ignorance by comparing stray dogs to people who don't want to do better for themselves.  So why do the talking heads on television only show 30 seconds of his 2:47 rant?  Why haven't they allowed YOU the opportunity too hear the underlying arguments of his speech?  For example:

"For the first time in the history of this country, we got more people voting... than we do working for a living."  Assuming those numbers are true, that is a disturbing statistic.  But there could be reasonable explanations to it.  The elderly are living longer.  The baby boomers are just hitting retirement age.  We have 10+% unemployment nationwide.  But the fact that a small shift in demographics pushed us over that hurdle seems unreal.

"Anytime we give someone money we reward them, we tell them keep doing what you are doing.  We discourage them from...from opening that business."  There are people that receive aid that have zero intention of doing better for themselves.  They are "lifers" inthe government system.  But there are many others who would probably look to improve their situation if they were encouraged or rewarded for rejecting government support.  Believe it or not, the assistance programs we have attempt to do this (on a small scale).  But, there has to be more that can be done to help motivate them.

 "If you receive goods or services from the government, then you owe something back... there are no repercussions.  We don't make you take a drug test.  We ought to."  Will this apply to anyone that receives any aid (i.e. unemployment, Medicare, Medicaid, etc.)?  Again, some assistance is not a problem.  EVERYONE needs something at some point.  But there should be repercussions to those that abuse the system!!!

"(Students who receive) free and reduced lunch have the lowest test scores in the state of South Carolina... schools that have the active participation in parents... they have the highest test scores... if you don't attend the parent teacher meetings, then bam, you lose your benefits.  We can't afford to keep giving money away."  It is his assumption that parents whose children receive the free/reduced lunches are also the least involved in their child's educational growth.  He believes there is a direct correlation between them and that none of the educational programs we have can help these children without the parental support.  While yes, they may be less involved because they are working two low paying jobs and that schedule doesn't allow them the opportunity to attend PTA meetings, parent/teacher conferences, etc.  But as the son of a single mother, who worked full-time, attended night school, and was in the Air Force Reserves, those excuses don't work for me.  Any parent that truly cares about their child will be sure to be involved... like my mother was.

Andre Bauer should NOT have compared people to animals.  Any decent human being will have some level of compassion towards those that have little to nothing.  The media focused on the 30 second clip and not the text in context causing some of us to miss the big picture: Compassion should not be endless if a person can do better yet simply chooses not to!

CDA2