Posted on 06/27/2016 11:36:08 AM PDT by Tolerance Sucks Rocks
Maine Gov. Paul LePage may have considered a proposal to prohibit food stamp recipients from using their benefits to buy candy and sodas to be a sweet one, but the Obama administration disagrees.
The friction between the Republican governor and the U.S. Department of Agriculture has reignited a debate after the Obama administration denied LePage’s request to put restrictions on what can be purchased with food stamps.
In a letter to Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, LePage said: “It’s time for the federal government to wake up and smell the energy drinks.”
In an interview with The Daily Signal, LePage’s health and human services chief explained what’s at stake.
“Certainly as a safety net program where the second word of the program’s name is nutrition, it is imperative that we are supporting what constitutes nutritional food and restricting those items that are not nutritional,” Mary Mayhew, commissioner of the Maine Department of Health and Human Services, said.
“There should be no debate that candy and soda are not nutritional, and we should not be funding with taxpayer dollars the purchase of candy and soda with the SNAP program,” she said.
SNAP is short for the the Agriculture Department’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, better known as food stamps.
Last week, the Agriculture Department rejected LePage’s plan to prohibit Maine’s food stamp recipients from using them to buy candy and soft drinks.
The rejection letter prompted a fiery response from LePage, who criticized the Obama administration for being hypocritical regarding its commitment to healthy eating in schools.
In a response to Vilsack, the Republican governor wrote:
(Excerpt) Read more at dailysignal.com ...
That makes zero sense.which is exactly what you would expect from anything run by the government.
When I was growing up you went to a warehouse and they gave you beans, cheese, rice, four, milk, eggs just the necessities I don’t know when this all changed people SHOULD be a little embarrassed for living on the dole, also not being able to go to a regular store as if you are living a normal acceptable lifestyle!!!
“Food stamps should be limited to things like rice and beans.”
Not all people have facilities where they can cook or prepare a meal, and worse, there’s plenty who don’t even know how to.
Can buy soda and candy on EBT cards but cannot buy a soda or candy in the school cafeteria with cash.
He asked if they at least drank the soda pop which they bought. "As far as I know, what else could they do with it,"?; I replied.
He then told me about a jay-bird in New England who shut down one of those coin dispensing can recycling machines. She just wanted the cash and was too lazy to even drink or empty the pop. I kid you not.
The administration wouldn't want to inconvenience people like her!
They aren’t doing ANYTHING else how hard is it to learn to cook for goodness sakes!!!
The prospect of going hungry is awfully good incentive to learn.
I agree, but they’re out there. I know people who make decent incomes and live in nice apartments, but put them in the kitchen and they may as well burn it down.
Sure they can, on their Section VIII stoves in the homes we also provide for them.
Anyone too stupid to know how to boil water .... geez Louise.
There is a necessary and proper clause in the Constitution.
candy - bad teeth
soda - bad teeth, waste of money, obesity
energy drinks - waste of (taxpayer) money
While I don’t want people to starve or go hungry, I don’t want tax dollars wasted or people to have their health damaged.
I thought Michelle Obama was into healthy eating. She ought to chew out the President and his bureaucrats.
Yup. They can get a 12 pack cheap soda for $2.50 or less, then dump it and get $1.20 for the cans!
They dump a few cases and get beer to go with the weed in their ‘blunts’.
My stepson was a cashier at a grocery store. He said he could spot a SNAP cart a mile away...lots of soda, cookies, frozen food, etc.
A byproduct of several generations using food stamps has been a ‘dumbing down’ of people, as far as food is concerned. The reason they buy this stuff is they quite simply do not know how to prepare food. And I’m not talking cooking from scratch...I’m talking dried spaghetti or even cooking eggs. I volunteer at a food donation warehouse...and they offer a class in basic cooking, since alt of the people who receive their food don’t know how to prepare it - I’m not making this up.
Anyway, somehow we’ve created a class of people who are practically helpless...so they do what little kids would do, and buy soda and cookies.
“Not all people have facilities where they can cook or prepare a meal, and worse, there’s plenty who don’t even know how to.”
Well, they better get a job, or get used to eating dry raw rice and beans!
Then solve the problem: teach them how to cook, using whatever means available.
Crock pots, hot plates, rice cookers (see Ebert’s book), etc are cheap & only need an outlet.
One cast iron pan can be enough for most foods, even over a scrap wood fire.
And plenty of food can be had at room temperature.
This “but they don’t have the resources” is nonsense. I can cook you sustaining food for $1/plate indefinitely with any resources you supply. The only thing lacking is education, and we’re dumping insane money into public schools that should be teaching such basics.
“Sure they can, on their Section VIII stoves in the homes we also provide for them.
Anyone too stupid to know how to boil Waterloo
In today’s computerized world, it ought not be too hard for for those who receive food stamps to be put into more refined categories, such as those who have a residence. I agree, the ones who do have facilities to prepare meals should be limited to bulk foods, most of which require preparation. However, the ones who need and benefit the most from the program are homeless, for whatever reason. I’m also in favor of drug testing recipients of ALL welfare type programs, which will probably also get me flamed by the drug legalization types.
So my disabled step-daughter, who died two weeks ago, should have been limited to mostly rice and beans for the final four or five years of her life?
“The only thing lacking is education, and we’re dumping insane money into public schools that should be teaching such basics.”
I fully agree. But they’re out there. They’re idiots when it comes to knowing how to take care of themselves. This is exactly what the socialists want.
“When I was growing up you went to a warehouse and they gave you beans, cheese, rice, four, milk....”
http://www.fns.usda.gov/sites/default/files/csfp/CSFP-Foods-Available.pdf
http://www.fns.usda.gov/fdd/food-distribution-programs
Sure, that’s what people that are sick of the welfare scam are wanting./sarc (Eyeroll)
Like most government programs, the original intent of the food stamp program was a good one. Now.... Under the likes of democrats and the Obama regime, the program has been expanded waaaaay beyond its intended purpose. It has DELIBERATELY been expanded, and even purposefully encourages people to get on it with the intent of expanding the dependent class of sheeple in our nation. It is the f**king socialists in this country who want EVERYBODY to be dependent upon the government for their every need. Unfortunately, they’ve done an excellent job so far with expanding their programs.
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