Posted on 05/14/2010 5:55:37 AM PDT by TornadoAlley3
WASHINGTON — Rep. Collin Peterson on Thursday suggested Congress consider banning caloric soft drinks from being purchased with food stamps as a way to address obesity.
According to multiple reports, Peterson said the proposed ban is "clearly is something we need to look at," though he added that he neither supports nor opposes the suggestion at this point.
Peterson's comments followed a House Agriculture Committee meeting, in which a panelist suggested the embargo. The hearing was one of many Peterson is holding as an early preview of the 2012 Farm Bill, which includes the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.
The exact suggestion Peterson was responding to, as reported by Reuters' Charles Abbott:
Wellesley College professor and food expert Rob Paarlberg suggested the ban during a hearing to review the 2008 farm law, which includes food stamps as well as crop subsidies. Food stamps help low-income people buy food. One in eight Americans receives food stamps.
The anti-hunger program accounts for 40 percent of Agriculture Department spending and outweighs crop subsidy and land stewardship spending of $10 billion this year.
"I would argue caloric soda should be made ineligible for purchase under SNAP, like tobacco and alcohol," said Paarlberg, using the new name for food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He later said sugary sodas are "a huge part of the obesity problem."
Not only “post-partisan”, but most white-guilt liberals voted for him as a “post-racial” president.
He’s nothing of the sort. He’s done everything he can to heighten the racial divide in the country.
Same here. They can make a loaf of bread for themselves for about 40 cents, and save their tax slaves about $1.10 per loaf. Why not? What else have they got to do all day?
Yep, that’s in the Constitution . . . no . . . really . . . somewhere in there . . . right along PENUMBRA, ABORTION, PRIVACY, 3 GALLONS OF WATER PER FLUSH, SEATBELTS, GOVERNMENT MANDATED HEALTHCARE, TAXPAYER FUNDED ABORTIONS, ETC. . . . isn’t it????????
The federal government has no business being in the food stamp business. It should be up to the States to provide (OR NOT PROVIDE!) welfare.
If you qualify for food stamps, you should be handed a box of staples each month: powdered milk, beans, rice, and such. That’s it. If you want to eat better, get a job.
In a perfect world, I don't have a problem with it either....but this government is guiding all aspects of life into public coffer channels. When Cap & Trade goes through all emissions will be wrapped around public coffers (government funding)and the cry of more restrictions will be deafening throughout the world.
In a Socialist state we will all be considered for the 'Welfare of the Government' recipients.
Food stamps should go to 3-squares, but when will we be all regulated to 3-squares?...tricky time we are in....
Well, if you are going to take government money, they get to rule over you. nothing is free.
Lobster,sure,no problem. Recently my husband came home in bit of a mood. He sat there silently fuming for a while and then I asked him what happened.
He had stopped at the grocery store on his way home from work to pick up some cat food. In front of him in line were an older woman with a younger pregnant woman who he thought might be the older woman’s daughter. They bought $64 dollars worth of lobster and paid for it with one of those food stamp cards.
It’s been true for a long time. I was a cashier in the late 70’s. Every two weeks or so, a certain man would come through my checkout line with two shopping carts overflowing with nothing but USDA Grade A beef, the best cuts. He’d pay for it all with food stamps. I was making $6.50 an hour, eating lots of mac & cheese and soy burger, and wondering why he was eating a lot better than most of us lowly workers.
I HATE these food NAZIs.
Congress should look at running the government and keeping its face outof other peoples’ business.
The above construction is ludicrous. Wellesley College has absolutely no connection to the food business. It has no curricula concerning food production, food processing, nor food distribution.
So, why do they need a "food expert" on the faculty? And how, exactly, has Paarlberg come to be known as a "food expert".
Or is he, perhaps, a specialist in The Politics Of Food?
Call me callous, but I don’t want to regulate food stamps. I want to eliminate them. Sorry, Hannity, no “safety net.” Churches, family, friends, food banks and other non-profits can feed the poor. It isn’t government’s business to feed people.
Stop electing socialists and that won’t be an issue.
They can eat whatever they want to. The gov’t shouldn’t be handing them just any old treats. YES, I think it should be limited when it’s a gift from the taxpayers.
No, not ciggies and not alcohol.
A lot of people who now receive food stamps have worked for years and paid their taxes. Why do you believe it is the government’s job to tell people what they can and can’t eat? If people get a tax break for buying a home, can the government tell you what kind of house you can buy? If you get a tax break for a business expense, can the government tell you what kind of business you can run? Where does it stop?
My teenaged son works in a grocery store, he told me food stamp users really love them some crab legs (currently $9/lb)
He was teasing with the wording, but not about the crab legs or the price.
We have to stop allowing anything because someday the gov’t might turn on us. We have to start holding to our conservative values and quit letting the gov’t impose Socialistic values on us!
There is no cash back from any food stamp purchase anywhere in the country. Some people have welfare benefits on the same EBT card; that is where the cash is coming from.
There are 40 million people in the US receiving
foodstamps..obesity problems are rampant in the
lower classes..foodstamps should only cover healthy
foods..makes sense.
I know a guy who in a very down period in his life, took a late night cashier shift at a convenience store. He would always tell me about this one regular customer. The guy would come in all the time to buy the same two items...a quart of milk, and Hustler magazine.
He paid for the milk with food stamps. He then whipped out a $20 to pay for the Hustler.
Why do you believe it is the government’s job to tell people what they can and can’t eat?
When they pry the Ding Dong from my cold, dead hand.....
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