Wisconsin lawmakers advance new rules for food stamp users

Pioneer Press ^ | 5-6-15 | Dana Ferguson

[TurboZamboni]

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Wisconsin lawmakers advanced a set of bills Wednesday that would require food stamp users to buy healthy food and mandate drug screening for state job training program applicants and some unemployment benefit claimants. An Assembly committee on public benefit reform approved the bills almost on party lines Wednesday, with Republicans voting in favor and Democrats against. Rep. Adam Neylon, a Pewaukee Republican, also voted against the measures. The approval clears the way for the full Assembly to vote on the measures next week. But prospects for the bill that would restrict food options for food stamp users remain murky in the Senate, which didn't take up a similar proposal last session. The Republican bill would require food stamp recipients to use at least two-thirds of their monthly benefits to purchase nutritional foods such as beef, chicken and fresh produce. Users would be barred from buying crab, lobster, shrimp and other shellfish. "We certainly want to make sure our poor people are reaching for the right food mix," Rep. Janel Brandtjen, a Menomonee Republican said at the hearing Wednesday. "Let's create incentives to look a little harder in the grocery store to look not just for what's easy, but for what's nutritional." The federal government funds food stamp benefits. If approved, legislators would need a waiver to impose limitations. No state has received such a waiver.

[relictele]

I’m all for eliminating abuse but trimming the edges of the Welfare State is not quite the same thing as eliminating the need for it.

[Buckeye McFrog]

No state has received such a waiver.

and they sure as hell won't get one from Obama

[JRandomFreeper]

Who decides what food is 'healthy'?

Which food fetishist gets their stuff placed in the market?

/johnny

[mrsmel]

If it’s good enough for public school children, it’s good enough for welfare recipients. If the taxpayers who are forced to subsidise the recipients can’t afford this stuff, then neither should those who are supported by those taxpayers.

[grania]

who decides what food is healthy?

That is the problem. I'd much rather the gov spent more time vetting food stamp recipients and had better programs to eliminate fraud. If food stamps only went to people who needed them, there wouldn't be much purchasing of those high-end items.

[MrB]

“Let’s create incentives to look a little harder in the grocery store to look not just for what’s easy, but for what’s nutritional.”

---

I know that there are many exceptions,
but would it be safe to say that the reason that 90% of the people on foodstamps
ARE on foodstamps,
is because they lack that initiative to do ANYTHING “a little harder”?

[The Free Engineer]

hows about if you have cable or satellite TB: If you can afford pay TV you don’t need food stamps.

[Kenny Bunk]

Cheese Head Kabuki Theatre.

Republicans:
"See how Conservative we are? See how tough on Welfare Loafers? .... of course these are federal programs and we really can't do a damn thing about them ... but we're Conservative!"

Democrats:
"See how we fight for the poor against the rich? Who's yo Daddy now? We keep the benefit checks coming. You wants lobster, you gets lobster. New battery for that Obamaphone? No problem. We know that African-Americans need to keep up their strength for demonstrations. No Justice no Peace, Baby!"

[Wolfie]

Who decides what food is 'healthy'?

Food lobbyists, of course.

[IronJack]

The whole federal food assistance program is a farce. Instead of handing out freebie cards, the recipients should be forced to go to a government center where they receive an allotment of approved items. There they are also checked for drug abuse and registered for labor duties. Fraud is criminal and renders the claimant ineligible for benefits for a certain period of time dependent on the grievousness of the offense. Rather than let dependents suffer, the claimant will be responsible for bringing them into the center for regular examinations to ensure they are being adequately fed.

If you want public money, it comes with strings attached. If you're not willing to accept the latter, don't accept the former.

[TurboZamboni]

The same people who made the “WIC Approved” labels?

[gr8eman]

We are going to spend millions of dollars to jump into people's grocery carts with them to tell them what they can and can't buy

LOL. Apparently this broad never saw all those WIC labels in supermarkets. What are the odds this idiot was all for Obamacare?

[Doug Loss]

Too complicated. Wisconsin, buy the food in bulk and distribute it to the “food stamp” holders directly. That way, no questions about what’s nutritious, no questions about non-allowed purchases, etc.

[Tulane]

As a tax payer funding the grocery trips, don’t I have a right to decide what is purchased?

[Repeal The 17th]

Food Stamps:
Any program that allows you to buy canned chili but
prohibits you from buying toilet paper is fatally flawed.

[Vigilanteman]

Simple rule to start with: If it isn't WIC eligible, then it isn't food stamp eligible.

Put the burden of proof on the gimme lobby to prove otherwise. Make them fight for it item by item.

[nothingnew]

Who decides what food is 'healthy'?

Aunt Jemimah. You know, the one in the white hut.

FMCDH(BITS)

[Steven Scharf]

Some folks don’t know what to quote from an article.

“Among the amendments brought by Rep. Andy Jorgensen, a Milton Democrat, were some that would require legislators and the governor to take mandatory drug tests.

“I think if we want the people of Wisconsin to pee in a cup, we should too. We should pee first,” Jorgensen said.”

[cport]

I wonder if he feels the same way about health insurance...