By Breaking Belize News Staff: Newly arrived U.S. Ambassador to Belize André Bauer has again defended controversial remarks he made more than 16 years ago comparing government assistance for poor people to feeding stray animals, arguing that his comments were about breaking generational dependency rather than denying assistance to people in need.
Bauer was confronted about the remarks during his first press encounter in Belize on Friday.
“If I didn’t know the background and the way the press tried to present it, I would feel the same way they did,” Bauer said.
The controversy dates back to January 2010, when Bauer was lieutenant governor of South Carolina and campaigning for governor.
During a town hall discussion about government benefits, Bauer invoked advice from his grandmother about not feeding stray animals “because they breed” while arguing that public assistance programs should include greater personal responsibility requirements. The comparison generated national controversy in the United States.
Bauer later said at the time that he had not meant to call recipients of public assistance animals and argued that the metaphor had been taken out of context.
On Friday, Bauer said the discussion was not about healthcare, as one question suggested, but about whether government programs merely maintain poverty rather than helping people escape it.
He also revealed that his own family had qualified for free school lunches when he was growing up in what he described as a broken home.
“I believe in doing all we can instead of just giveaways,” Bauer said, pointing to healthcare, transportation, childcare and education as examples of assistance that can help people become self-sufficient.
“I’m all about opportunity, access, and lifting people up,” he added.
Bauer argued that public officials sometimes have to engage in politically difficult conversations rather than simply support programs that sound compassionate.
“If you really want to help people, sometimes you have to have very difficult conversations,” he said.
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By Breaking Belize News Staff: Newly arrived U.S. Ambassador to Belize André Bauer has again defended controversial remarks he made more than 16 years ago comparing government assistance for poor people to feeding stray animals, arguing that his comments were about breaking generational dependency rather than denying assistance to people in need. Bauer was confronted
The post New U.S. Ambassador André Bauer confronted by press over infamous ‘stray animals’ remarks as he arrives in Belize appeared first on Belize News and Opinion on www.breakingbelizenews.com.
