Reason number 89,562,490 why I could never, ever be a conservative: I lack the inherent mean streak necessary to qualify. For all their posturing about how generous they are with their charity dollars, yada yada, the fact remains that they're downright mean. Rush Limbaugh thinks poor kids should dumpster dive? No problem for conservatives. They agree.

So here's the newest conservative budget-saver. Michigan State Senator Bruce Caswell thinks foster kids should only be allowed to buy secondhand clothes. Hey, it would save the state about $17 bucks, so there's that.

Michigan Messenger:

Under a new budget proposal from State Sen. Bruce Casswell, children in the state’s foster care system would be allowed to purchase clothing only in used clothing stores. Casswell, a Republican representing Branch, Hillsdale, Lenawee and St. Joseph counties, made the proposal this week, reports Michigan Public Radio. His explanation? “I never had anything new,” Caswell says. “I got all the hand-me-downs. And my dad, he did a lot of shopping at the Salvation Army, and his comment was — and quite frankly it’s true — once you’re out of the store and you walk down the street, nobody knows where you bought your clothes.” Under his plan, foster children would receive gift cards that could only be used at places like the Salvation Army, Goodwill and other second hand clothing stores.

Quite frankly, I don't give a jolly red rip about Caswell's daddy making him wear secondhand clothes. And yes, you can hit the Salvation Army and occasionally find something worth wearing. But is he suggesting these kids should buy secondhand underwear, socks and shoes too? Evidently so, or they can just suck it up and go without.

This seems to me like a guy working out his own childhood. I fully expected his next proposal to be eliminated school buses in the winter because he had to walk 30 miles in the hip-deep snow to get to school and dammit, he liked it. And while this proposal has been dropped from the budget, other proposals have been inserted that are equally mean, equally targeted at those least able to speak or have any power in this process, and are just as demeaning.

It's just mean. Mean-spirited. Another way of saying to those kids (who, by the way, are not foster kids because they requested that particular status) that they're just not quite worth the investment of a new pair of jeans and shoes.

Mean.