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18 mayors: Limit use of food stamps to buy soda
Associated Press ^ | Jun. 18, 2013 10:09 PM EDT | Jennifer Peltz

Posted on 06/18/2013 10:00:42 PM PDT by Olog-hai

The mayors of New York, Los Angeles, Chicago and 15 other cities are reviving a push against letting food stamps be used to buy soda and other sugary drinks.

In a letter sent to congressional leaders on Tuesday, the mayors say it’s “time to test and evaluate approaches limiting” the use of the subsidies for sugar-laden beverages, in the interest of fighting obesity and related diseases.

“We need to find ways to strengthen the program and promote good nutrition while limiting the use of these resources for items with no nutritional value, like sugary drinks, that are actually harming the health of participants,” Mayor Michael Bloomberg, whose office released the letter, said in a statement. “Why should we continue supporting unhealthy purchases in the false name of nutrition assistance?”

The other cities whose mayors signed the letter are Baltimore; Boston; Louisville, Ky.; Madison, Wis.; Minneapolis; Newark, N.J.; Oakland, Calif.; Philadelphia; Phoenix; Portland, Ore.; Providence, R.I.; Salt Lake City; San Francisco; St. Louis; and Seattle. …

(Excerpt) Read more at bigstory.ap.org ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Chit/Chat; Food; Society
KEYWORDS: bloomberg; foodstamps; snap; sodajerk
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1 posted on 06/18/2013 10:00:42 PM PDT by Olog-hai
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To: Olog-hai

I’m surprised Doomberg would be behind this.


2 posted on 06/18/2013 10:04:34 PM PDT by wastedyears (I'm a gamer not because I choose to have no life, but because I choose to have many.)
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To: Olog-hai

fair enough. you accept the govt’s money, you follow their rules


3 posted on 06/18/2013 10:04:48 PM PDT by Cronos (Latin presbuteros>Late Latin presbyter->Old English pruos->Middle Engl prest->priest)
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To: Cronos

Take the King’s Coin, Do the King’s Bidding.


4 posted on 06/18/2013 10:06:50 PM PDT by dfwgator
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To: Olog-hai

For once, I agree with Bloomie. Don’t stop at sugary sodas. No chips, no pop tarts, no candy. Healthy foods only, and generics, like WIC.


5 posted on 06/18/2013 10:08:08 PM PDT by informavoracious (We're being "punished" with Stanley Ann's baby. Obamacare: shovel-ready healthcare.)
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To: Olog-hai

There is so much abuse regarding food stamps (regarded as free money), soda is the least of their worries.


6 posted on 06/18/2013 10:08:17 PM PDT by doc1019 (There is absolutely no difference between pro-choice and pro-abortion.)
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To: Olog-hai

They don’t have to ban all soda. Just grape soda and Sprite.


7 posted on 06/18/2013 10:10:03 PM PDT by edpc (Wilby 2016)
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To: informavoracious

I agree. No processed microwave meals. Just staples like flour, sugar, fruits and veggies, basic meats. Nothing more than $5 lb.

Not sure why someone on SNAP needs steak and lobster. Not sure why they need premade cake and icecream. If you want those things then learn how to make them.


8 posted on 06/18/2013 10:12:06 PM PDT by pennyfarmer (Your socialist beat our liberal AGAIN.)
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To: informavoracious

Has the USDA changed their policy on soft drinks since 1977? In those days I worked for Lucky Stores in southern CA and you could not buy soft drinks with food stamps.

That did not stop people from buying $100 in food with food stamps and $100 in alcohol and cigarettes with cash.


9 posted on 06/18/2013 10:13:21 PM PDT by chrisinoc
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To: Olog-hai

Not against SNAP (Food Stamps) per se and the idea that 1 in 5 citizens (and who knows how many aliens?) are on the dole. Oh, no, they just don’t want “Big Sugar” or “Big Soda” to make a profit from it. The fact that welfare, food stamps and Section 8 are what is dragging this country down to the level of Ethiopia or Bangladesh doesn’t enter into it.


10 posted on 06/18/2013 10:16:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet (I'll raise $2million for Sarah Palin's next run. What'll you do?)
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To: wastedyears

>>I’m surprised Doomberg would be behind this<<

doonseburg rule: never EVER let an opportunity to control as many as possible go by. liberal ideas of “the stupid downtrodden” must relinquish to the All Seeing Eye of The State.”

Viva la Nanny State!


11 posted on 06/18/2013 10:21:09 PM PDT by freedumb2003 (To attempt to have intercourse with a hornet's nest is a very bad idea)
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To: pennyfarmer

You post on this forum, yet spew the control nature of the left. Food stamps is the least of our worries in this country right now. Some of you who are so judgmental about what people can and can’t buy - may someday find yourself in need. Don’t we have enough of big brother without the posters on here chiming in with the left? Sure, there is fraud, but its prevalent in larger ways in this country.


12 posted on 06/18/2013 10:25:20 PM PDT by Catsrus
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To: Cronos

well as long as we’re all going to be good little communists its high time to restrict the soda for the takers....that and their potato chips, and candy bars, and skittles, and their Arizona teas....just as bad for you as soda...


13 posted on 06/18/2013 10:28:49 PM PDT by cherry
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To: chrisinoc

Oh yes. You can buy any “food” on food stamps except ready to eat hot food. You still cannot buy pet food, alcohol, tobacco, toilet tissue or soap. I am regularly behind users at the store, with conveyor belts full of soda pop, sugary cereals, snacks, and assorted junk foods, along with expensive convenience frozen foods. Very little fresh, nutritious food. The mom and the poor little kids are all obese. In the 70s there was still some stigma attached to good stamps. Now it is to make them feel like they’re just like working people.


14 posted on 06/18/2013 10:31:10 PM PDT by informavoracious (We're being "punished" with Stanley Ann's baby. Obamacare: shovel-ready healthcare.)
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To: informavoracious

I was at a local grocery meat dept. trying to figure out how much hamburger I could afford. I watched the woman ahead of me order 4.5 lbs of King Crab legs at $20.00 a lb and three 12 oz filet mignons at $12.99 lb. Saw her when I was checking ou. She got her total then whipped out an EBT card to pay for it.


15 posted on 06/19/2013 2:36:26 AM PDT by DaiHuy (May God save the country, for it is evident the people will not! Millard Fillmore)
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To: Olog-hai

Beer dogfood and lotto ok


16 posted on 06/19/2013 3:08:31 AM PDT by ronnie raygun (Yesterdays conspiracies are todays truths)
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To: Catsrus

It makes them feel superior. But I agree with all you said. Paying taxes doesn’t make you the boss of those who most had jobs all their lives and have had to cash in on what THEY paid for through the years. But you can’t make some Freepers understand that food stamps doesn’t equal non working bums. Some just underworking parents.


17 posted on 06/19/2013 3:11:55 AM PDT by autumnraine (America how long will you be so deaf and dumb to thoe tumbril wheels carrying you to the guillotine?)
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To: pennyfarmer
Just staples like flour, sugar, fruits and veggies, basic meats.

For a growing percentage of the population, welfare isn't a temporary safety net, it's a permanent way of life. Qualifying for it is the peak of their career. There is no reason to motivate them to move on because there is no job they can do that a computerized machine can't do better, faster, cheaper. Can we permanently deny the small luxuries in life to these people? I say give these human pets their treats but in exchange have them fixed.

18 posted on 06/19/2013 3:27:46 AM PDT by Reeses
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To: Olog-hai

Its the t-bone steaks and lobster that irks me.


19 posted on 06/19/2013 3:34:02 AM PDT by BushCountry (We Wanted a President That Listens to All Americans - Now We Have One!)
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To: Olog-hai

Time to sell my stock in ‘purple drank’


20 posted on 06/19/2013 4:03:09 AM PDT by varyouga
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