South Carolina's Lt. Governor Andre Bauer compared people on receiving welfare to "feeding stray animals" during a town hall meeting on January 22, 2010. Bauer told FOX Carolina News that his remarks were distorted by the media and his political opponents.http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/22335341/detail.html

• Bauer was quoted as saying:
• "My grandmother was not a highly educated woman, but she told me as a small child to quit feeding stray animals," Bauer said according to audio from the town hall meeting released on the newspaper's Web site. "You know why? Because they breed! You're facilitating the problem. If you give an animal or person an ample food supply they will reproduce, especially one that don't think too much further than that."http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/22335341/detail.html

In an interview with a South Carolina news outlet on Monday, January 25, 2010, Bauer said, "I wish I had used a different metaphor, but my message was on target." He further explained, "What I said was is that we've got a welfare system that's broken. We encourage people to stay on a system that's broken."http://www.foxcarolina.com/news/22335341/detail.html

Bauer said it was not his intention to offend anyone, he was just explaining how people become dependent on welfare and the cycle needs to be broken. Democratic Senator Vincent Sheheen called the comments "immoral and out of line" and Jim Rex, who is the superintendent of South Carolina's schools and also a democrat, called on Bauer to apologize.http://abcnews.go.com/US/wireStory?id=9659366