Andre Bauer, South Carolina Lt. Gov., Blames 'Flat-Out Lazy' People For Immigration Problems

South Carolina Lt. Governor Andre Bauer (R-S.C.) introduced a new line of reasoning into the contentious immigration debate last week, blaming "flat-out lazy" people for allowing illegal immigrants to thrive in his state.

"The real problem is the work force," Bauer said during the first Republican gubernatorial debate on Friday. "The problem is we have a give-away system that is so strong that people would rather sit home and do nothing than do these jobs."

"Laziness is not a disability," Bauer continued. "There are a lot of people that are flat-out lazy and they are using up the goods and services we have in this state."

Lt. Governor Bauer received national attention earlier this year when he compared people receiving public assistance to stray animals, and then delivered a half-hearted apology.

Bauer finished last place in a recent straw poll of South Carolina Republicans, getting only 10 percent of the vote for GOP gubernatorial nomination. Rep. Gresham Barrett won that poll with 37 percent of the vote.

Watch the video (Bauer's comments start around 3:30):

Comments

[Marilyn Hemingway]

06:36 PM on 05/19/2010

I agree with Ellis Hughes, our SC Love Gov would have been gone a long time ago had the GOP controlled legislature not been afraid of Andre Bauer replacing him and thus even more embarassment being bestowed on SC republicans. Its time for a change: JIM REX for Governor

[henrypapillon]

09:24 PM on 04/27/2010

How much physical work did this dork ever do.

[goodmarina]

08:53 PM on 04/27/2010

I bet you his mama's nursing home has a medication or nurse's aid that is a hard-working immigrant.

I bet you his children's school cafetaria workers are hard-working immigrants.

I bet you his wife's housekeeper, nanny & yard boy work for dirt cheap, work long hours and are hard-working immigrants.

I bet you the roads this man drives on are worked on (in that lovely southern 1000 degree summer heat) by hard-working immigrants.

Lazy ... bah humbug!

[kimbanyc]

07:02 PM on 04/27/2010

They really know how to bring the crazy in SC

[nini516]

06:56 PM on 04/27/2010

How many days a year do Lieutenant Governors work? Don't they get a LOT of time off.
What a rude disrespectful thing to say about your own constituents!! Guess the lazies won't get off their couches to vote for you either.

[gray375]

06:56 PM on 04/27/2010

as much i hate to say this i have to kinda agree with Andre on this one. I live in SC and work in SC and being in a position of management i find it unbelievable how sorry so many employees are. The attitude is " I'm here, you expect me to work?"

[duhtruth]

06:09 PM on 04/27/2010

Put this bo zo in a migrant pickers job in 90-degree heat and let's see if the pan ty waist will last even half a day. Oh how easy it is to hammer bottom of the wage scale workers while sitting in an air conditioned office.

[pammiethekid]

06:00 PM on 04/27/2010

Yeah Bauer. Or the real problem might be that you live in a right-to-work state, also known as right to work for nothing. You got skilled laborers that don't make enough to ever retire, and their sons and daughters know better than to go into trades that won't get you above poverty level in SC. Your unemployment level is legendary in SC, along with your poverty level and the number of immigrants who have come to your state, legally and not-so-much to fill the shoes of Americans who have given up. It's called a discouraged work force and it was absolutely created by the policies you and your asinine cohorts espouse.

[Senzasord]

05:42 PM on 04/27/2010

When he shoud be blaming flat out greedy executerrorists who want to impose their neo feudalism on the vanishing middle class of America. If we prosecuted those illegal employers and made it uneconimical for them to hire illegal workers, then the jobs for illegals would dry up and many Americans would be enabled to return to work. Unfortunately the executerrorists would have to settle for lower profits and lower stick prices and dividends. Somehow I can't work up much pity for them.

[Harry Scrote]

05:13 PM on 04/27/2010

What is wrong with people? What are the nation's universities graduating these days?

[VTL]

04:51 PM on 04/27/2010

Yeah, those "lazy" people just don't want to pick dem strawberries, clean dem houses, wash dem dishes, and mow dem lawns.

[laocoon]

06:18 PM on 04/27/2010

for the generous sum of $5 a day. imagine that. it is odd how it is the same people screaming about how we should not tax capital gains- wholly passive income for owning a lot and nothing else- who see the lazy workers as the problem.

[Buster41]

04:42 PM on 04/27/2010

I'M WONERING IF THIS LT. GOV. IS A RELATIVE OF GARY BAUER? HE'S NOT AS HIDEOUSLY UGLY AS OLD GARY, BUT HE'S GOT THE SAME RIGHT-WING, DISPICABLE, MOUTH FLAPPING RANT.

[healthanalyst]

04:36 PM on 04/27/2010

Damn Republican carpetbagger.

[punkindmb]

04:23 PM on 04/27/2010

So its my fault that the company won't pay me a decent wage? Why isn't it the companies fault for breaking the law and hiring illegals. Wages have been stagnant for the last several years, but the cost of living has increased.

[plaidsportcoat]

06:12 PM on 04/27/2010

Bauer: Ahhh shaddup and resign yourself to your fate you whiner.

[GraceMAC]

04:21 PM on 04/27/2010

This guy is straight out of a Dickens novel -- one of the totally unrepentant villains.

[plaidsportcoat]

06:12 PM on 04/27/2010

Oh Golly! Fanned for that truth!