[Xenalyte]

It'd help if the program could be set up so food stamps couldn't be used for junk food.

When I worked in a grocery store in high school, our system was set up so only certain items could be paid for with food stamps. If someone bought a pack of cigarettes and a head of lettuce, the food stamps could only go toward the lettuce, and we had to give back change in food stamps (unless the change was under a dollar); they'd have to pay cash for the smokes.

The only problem with that is that almost everything in our store that was untaxed consumable (Texas grocery stores used to not tax food) could be paid for with food stamps.

As a result, I'd check out someone with a carton of milk (good), sugary breakfast cereal (not so good), and Twinkies (lard-filled so not that good), all of which they'd pay for in food stamps.

[Wright is right!]

And don't forget that Food God Of The Starving, the Kraft Macaroni and Cheese "Dinner" - loaded with starchy carbs, belly filling, and a steal at just a few cents a box. It has a mouth "feel" and blandness that just about anyone will eat, and eat loads of it. That's the first thought I had when seeing this article - mac and cheese "dinners."

Michael

[Darnright]

>As a result, I'd check out someone with a carton of milk (good), sugary breakfast cereal (not so good), and Twinkies (lard-filled so not that good), all of which they'd pay for in food stamps.<

Years ago, I got into an argument with my ultra-liberal sister (the first inkling that I was a conservative and future Republican), by saying that I'd like to see limits put on food stamps. I thought (and still do) that they should not be used for junk food. My sister snapped my head off, declaring that nobody had the right to tell a parent they could not buy cookies for Junior (they still could, but not with taxpayers' monies).

Poor people are fat if they load up the shopping cart with chips, ice cream, cookies, white bread and Twinkies.

[Revolting cat!]

It'd help if the program could be set up so food stamps couldn't be used for junk food.

Yep. Why do you think they called our once favourite presidential candidate the King of Food Stamps? Was he so concerned about the starving poor? What benificiaries of the food stamp program can contribute generously to senatorial and presidential campaigns! Well, duh!

That it takes a "thesis" from a "Washington think tank" to note the obvious about these programs and what they do to the so called "poor" pretty much says how screwed up our wonderful government has become.

Another interesting part is that whenever the "obesity epidemic" is mentioned (supposedly 1/3rd of us are obese!) the government and the media studiously avoid noting that it primarily affects the starving poor and the Left's favorite (lower) social classes. That way they can persuade the rest of us to agree to more spending increases (to fight a problem that was created by government programs in the first place.) A fine mess...