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 ...
hmmm, and you know this how? How many are you personally helping to make this determination? There are so many good little comrades on this forum.
You obviously measure compassion based on how many people are on a government program.
I measure it by how many no longer need government programs.
Aw, another good little comrade who wants to dictate what others may or may not eat. Personally, I haven’t seen too many at the grocery store using food stamps who buy lobster or even steak. Instead, I’ve seen young mothers with children pulling on her with a cart full of cereal, hamburger, milk, bread, etc. and yes, even a snack or two for the kids. So what? Get your darned noses out of other people’s grocery carts and learn the goosestep.
Catsup— here’s the deal: I didn’t set up welfare, but I do pay a lot of my income in taxes. I get, and ought to get, a say in how it should be spent. I get your “comrade” insult, but if you knew me (and you don’t) you’d keep your mouth shut and think a bit about the issue rather than being cute, which you are not.
First, I do not object to helping those in need. I happen to think that private charity works more efficiently than the federal government ever could (if Biden and those of his ilk would donate more than a couple hundred bucks a year we might be better able to tackle the problem).
But when you are the beneficiary of the “generosity” of others you ARE subject to limitations on the use of that generosity, if for no other reason than to assure its more efficient use. If that bothers you, decline the gift. For those who use the benefits wisely, there is no issue. But for those who would waste the benefits, I have no real concern about their hurt feelings for having to be told not to be stupid.
Of course, when you spend your own money, neither I nor anyone I know cares how you spend it, nor should we. But when you take money out of my checkbook, you are darned straight that I am going to do what I can to attach strings to it.
I so valued your question that I went and ran the EITC calculator for the family of 4. The credit was about $2700. Don’t know what their income tax was so I can’t fully answer the question. If the EITC is actually higher than the tax they can actually get a refund. This would really be living high, no? The SNAP benefits I can calculate — would be about $200/month for the family of four.
Get your darned noses out of other people’s grocery carts and learn the goosestep.
Then tell those people to get their hands out of the taxpayers’ wallet.
Living high? I don’t know. I don’t know where they live or what other assistance they may receive. I will say that MANY here on this forum have had very hard times and may even be having them now. The government didn’t used to be anywhere near as generous and yet somehow we got by without the help. Worked two and three jobs. No vacations, no extras, maybe a pizza and a rented video twice a month. Kids did babysitting to earn spending money. If we couldn’t afford it, we did without. Now “poor” people expect to have everything they see on tv. Where’s the incentive to better yourself and your circumstances? That’s part of what it is to be American. College students used to live on mac and cheese and ramen. Somehow they survived. Now they can get food stamps. Great way to get people accustomed to getting “free” stuff from the government. Except it really isn’t free.
Many people receiving food stamps have been former tax payers,and even if they are collecting unemployment benefits - it is taxed. So, they, too are taxpayers. Some of you are so critical and cruel.
Oh really? Why not rant and rave about Planned Parenthood? They are taking money out of your wallet as well. Care to tell us how you’re going to have strings attached to this? No, its easier to sit behind a computer and rant and rave - as if you have any control over how any of the money taken in by the government is spent. What a good little comrade you are. There may come a day when you will need help and if that day ever comes, I’d love to shove your post in your holier-than-thou face.
And by the way, most charities are strapped as well. And, for the record, many who are receiving unemployment checks are also paying taxes, so maybe they should rant and rave over how that is spent as well.
Such an arrogant, judgmental, non compassionate person you are. Like I said, I hope someday that Karma gets you.
Many older folks don’t know how to microwave. Many younger folks don’t know how to cook other than the microwavable premade meals.
Hard to find folks who know how to cook a good pork chop, but then again, they’re so lean, no matter how you cook ‘em, they don’t taste like pork chops anymore.
You posted: Oh really? Why not rant and rave about Planned Parenthood? They are taking money out of your wallet as well. Care to tell us how you’re going to have strings attached to this? No, its easier to sit behind a computer and rant and rave - as if you have any control over how any of the money taken in by the government is spent. What a good little comrade you are. There may come a day when you will need help and if that day ever comes, I’d love to shove your post in your holier-than-thou face.
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What is wrong with you? This thread is about Mayors limiting the use of food stamps. That’s why I was only speaking about that. I oppose government funding of Planned Parenthood because some proceeds are used to fund abortions. When a thread comes up on that topic I will comment on it.
Sitting behind a computer? (I am sitting in FRONT of mine, but never mind that.) Isn’t that what YOU are doing, too?
If you had read my earlier posts before you got on your high horse you would see that, in fact, in the early 70s, when I was a teenager, my family DID get food stamps and federal assistance after my father stopped supporting us. So I know a little of what it is like to live in poverty (not that that is required in order to have an opinion). So “karma” has already bitten me as you asked for in a later post. I lived in a cruddy apartment in a bad part of town— an apartment in which my mother was raped, by the way, by a man who broke in. Not that any of that matters, but it may make you feel better to know that I have had some adversity in life, just like most people.
You are absolutely right, of course, that I can’t control how government spends my money, but at least for now we can all express our opinions on these issues.
As for shoving anything in my face, I am not a violent person, but I welcome your effort to try.
I think it is cruel to want to keep folks dependent upon the generosity of others. I prefer to give them a helping hand, not a way of life.
You might want to check your personal insults at the door and try presenting your position without the emotional insults.
I personally think limiting food stamps to beans, rice, cabbage and milk would send a better message.
$2 a pound actually covers plenty of staples, including meats and fruits and veggies.
Better yet, stop giving food stamps to fat people.
Ha ha!
The biggest problem with limiting what people purchase with food stamps is do it. It would just limit what the pay for with food stamps. It would cost the tax payers more because there is no savings in limiting what people buy with food stamps. How much would it cost to pay for the limiting process. How much of your tax money do you want spent on enforcement. Do want a unfunded mandate by the goverment telling private business to be the enforcers? They already do for sales taxes in many states. I would assume most people using food stamps also spent cash. I have seen people sort their items by food stamp and cash items. In a larger market the clerk can say the registrar would let me take a ebt card for that. But in smaller stores you making the clerk the enforcer for the goverment. Would you be a goverment enforcer. If you would be a goverment enforcer would there be a line would would not cross?
The problem is the program is geared to buy votes and make people dependent on the goverment. I would address the problem with the goverment first.
Eliminating food stamps would eliminate those problems.
Give them food, not food stamps.
It would also eliminate the vote buying.
And,you might want to mind your own business. There isn’t a thing any of us can do about abuses of the government handouts, but I sure would cut a few other programs before hurting families who right now need the food stamps.
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