Starve the Poor

Dear Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer,

When your grandma told you to quit feeding stray animals, she meant dogs and cats, not schoolchildren, you dumbass.

Sincerely,
The Daily Dorkmonger

(YouTube video)

The South Carolina Republican didn't sound any less ridiculous in his "apology."

So now that Andre Bauer has admitted that starving the poor is the new Republican strategy, maybe we should take a moment to remember why The National School Lunch Program was created in the first place:

The depression of the 1930's brought on widespread unemployment. Millions of people in the cities lost their jobs and were without means of support for themselves and their families. They were obliged to seek help through public assistance programs.

Much of the production of the farm went begging for a market, surpluses of farm products continued to mount, prices of farm products declined to a point where farm income provided only a meager subsistence. Millions of school children were unable to pay for their school lunches, and with but limited family resources to provide meals at home, the danger of malnutrition among children became a national concern. Federal assistance became essential, and Congressional action was taken in 1935 to aid both agriculture and the school lunch program.

I'm glad that 70-something years ago people understood that poverty could lead to malnutrition which could hamper a child's ability to learn. Bauer, in his backwards logic, blames food for hungry children on low test scores. Oh, but he adamantly supports religious license plates. Go figure. Maybe he's a little malnourished himself?

And as far as this "culture of dependence" goes, I'm sure it's possible to compile a long list of people who benefited from The National School Lunch Program and later escaped the cycle of poverty.

The bigger question is this: will our banks ever get out of this culture of dependence? Or how about the beneficiary state of South Carolina?