Congressman James Clyburn of South Carolina, the U.S. House Majority Whip, is responding to a comment made by Lt. Governor Andre Bauer on Friday concerning government handouts.

At a forum, Bauer, a Republican, said the government has gotten out-of-control, and he compared the government assistance program that gives less fortunate children free or reduced meals in school cafeterias to feeding stray animals. He said that giving an animal or a person ample food supply facilitates a problem.

Clyburn, a Democrat, says it’s embarrassing.

(Clyburn on Bauer MP3 :24)

Clyburn on Bauer MP3 :24

Bauer said later that he didn’t mean to compare people to animals, but he was making the point that government dependency needs to be broken. Bauer says people should no longer be allowed to ride the system without consequence.

Extended periods of cold weather help to reveal how many homeless people there are in urban areas– and reveal who are the homeless. Frank Kunz is executive director for The Cooperative Ministry in Columbia. His agency oversees the emergency winter shelter for the Midlands. He says he is seeing a changing demographic on homelessness.

“The first night the shelter was opened I met a lady that was very well dressed, very articulate, very well groomed. She came up to me, thanked me for a warm bed to sleep and she said, ‘this is my first time being homeless, I’ve been homeless for two weeks.’ She had a job,” Kunz said. [Read more...]