SC GOPer: Comparing Poor People To 'Stray Animals' Probably 'Wasn't The Best Metaphor'

Odd. I thought that this guy would be the last South Carolinian on earth to know anything about "breeding."

Doofus:U.S. has a "culture of dependency" that is a "systemic problem."
Just like the rest of the Confederate states, getting more money from the US than they pay in taxes. That pesky culture of dependency.

Go ahead, pull a Jindal. Claim you'll take no more money than SC pays up to the Feds. C'mon! Let's see that get you elected.

Welfare dependency arguments by Republicans are old as Bill Clinton's welfare reform days. My Congressman John Mica compares helping poor people to feeding alligators.

http://www.orlandoweekly.com/features/story.asp?id=957

Mica came to Congress on a platform built on such stands, equating his financial security with political independence. "I’ve made a lot of money and I don’t need
the salary," he said.

Proud of his status as a self-made entrepreneur, Mica would like to privatize as many services as possible, including public education. He would convert foreign aid into aid for U.S. businesses for "export assistance." Last year he put your
money where his mouth is by voting for taxpayer-subsidized loans to nations that import U.S. weapons -- but only after taking $14,200 from political-action committees associated with those weapons merchants, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.

But while championing welfare for Grumman and Lockheed Martin, Mica’s tightwad side rules his philosophy regarding government aid to poor people.

In a 1994 survey on welfare, Mica chose all the most restrictive options regarding welfare reform, endorsing mandatory work and a requirement that teen moms must live with a parent. Then he added: "Six-month maximum on welfare."

Mica even endured a moment of infamy in the spring of 1996 when he likened welfare recipients to reptiles. "Do not feed the alligators," he said. "We post these warnings because unnatural feeding and artificial care create dependency."

It was a common theme for Republicans during welfare reform.

http://www.nytimes.com/1995/03/25/us/house-backs-bill-undoing-decades-of-welfare
-policy.html?pagewanted=all

Representative Jim McCrery, Republican of Louisiana, said today's vote was "a big victory for Republicans in Congress and for children who will grow up in the next century." Representative James M. Talent, Republican of Missouri, said the current system, while "trying to give people material wealth and lift them out of poverty, is luring them into a kind of spiritual poverty by destroying their families and their incentives to work."

Other Republicans, noting how animals can become dependent on people who feed them, said their bill would liberate people from dependence on Government programs.

The American Psycholigical Association wrote about this pathology at the time. Mica's comments are noted in the article.

The enemy within: A commentary on the demonization of difference. By Sidel, Ruth
October 1996, Pages 490-495

Abstract

Ways in which the poor and the powerless, women in particular, have been made the focus of rhetoric aimed at the undoing of the federal welfare system are described. As Aid to Families with Dependent Children is being decimated and other programs that serve the poor are threatened by severe cutbacks, the litany of criticism against poor, single women is relentless. This denigration is based in large part on dichotomous thinking and on the repetition and reiteration of commonly held myths about poor women and their children. Scapegoating poor,
single mothers as a means of diverting attention from recent shifts in wealth in the US is examined, and it is suggested that the essential problem is not the character and habits of the poor women but the persistence of poverty as a
fundamental structure of the society.

(PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2009 APA,
all rights reserved)

Race and the politics of welfare reform By Sanford Schram, Joe Soss, Richard C. Fording

John Mica's comments are noted on Page 182 with a Congressional Record citation

Aren't we actually just the moles under Bauer's putting green?
What happens when he goes out of town?

I think we know why the legislature wouldn't impeach Mark Sanford.

Just a thought: could it be some of those welfare recipients are on welfare only because they can't get jobs? If this bothers Bauer so much, he could propose a jobs program.