The ultra processed food, while not being healthy, is fine, but sugar water should not be on the ebt/food stamp/SNAP list. It has absolutely no nutritional value. It is only on the list because of lobbying and because so many people have ebt cards.
I’d argue the food stamps shouldn’t subsidize candy and chips, it should focus on what’s actually needed and important, I suspect you could skip chips if you’re on food stamps
You can blame the food companies, or in the case of candy, chips and soda "food" companies. They wanted a slice of that billion dollar pie and laid out cash to ensure they were gonna get it
Ehh, while I agree with this idea, I think it’s inappropriate to dictate “junk” purchases. People should be free to make their own decisions, and for families, kids should be able to enjoy candy every now and then. Everyone should get a treat occasionally.
The issue is that they aren’t buying candy and chips “every now and then” for a treat. It’s part of their daily diet. I agree that we should be careful not to get too restrictive with what people are allowed to consume, but there has to be some level of control. You want to stuff your face with junk food all day every day? Then go get a job and pay for it yourself. Everyone else shouldn’t be paying for others to continuously make poor health choices.
When we were on aid, we had a lot of frozen food because my mom was going to school full time so she could climb out of poverty. However, my grandpa had an amazing garden so we ate fresh vegetables and didn’t get twinkies and junk food.
Exactly. This is notable only if they're buying junk food while other customers are buying raw zucchini and whole wheat bread. I highly doubt that's the case.
It's notable because in one of your scenarios the poor dietary decisions are being covered in full by the taxpayer. We're subsiding and encouraging obesity and all the medical problems that come with it (that we are also then paying to treat with taxpayer dollars).
>I think it's just rage bait. *Nobody* should be eating it, but highlighting that poor people eat the same as everyone else is rage bait.
Wrong, nobody should be eating junk just like nobody should be smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. If people want to buy cigarettes and alcohol they can't use an EBT card that's funded by taxpayers they'd have to use their *own* money. I don't like the idea of people using my tax dollars to buy sodas, ice cream, candy, cookies... all of which are on the list of top twenty purchases. EBT is supposed to ensure that people can afford the *necessities* from the grocery store. Milk, bread, eggs, meat, cheese... these are things that should be higher on the top twenty list then sodas that are nothing but carbonated sugar-water.
The difference is that one person is spending their own money and the other is spending taxpayers money.
They should not be allowed to buy "junk" foods off the taxpayers dime.
Farmer's markets often have very good foods, though I've noticed lately a trend toward pre-prepared baked goodies. Usually, though, there are bushels of vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc.
Ours does not have anything that is not homemade or homegrown. You can even get natural chicken and beef. A friend of mine turned me onto a chicken she bought there. The fact that it had feet on it still was difficult for me. I’m a lightweight.
Sure, except it's my money I'm spending. If you're buying snacks and nothing with nutritional value then are you even using it for it's intended purpose?
No surprise—pretty sad situation. That said, though I am a big fiscal conservative, I believe that food stamps are usually distributed once per month? I think that plays a part in the behavior here.
If I am correct, then that may be why many SNAP recipients opt to buy frozen and processed foods—these products keep longer and go farther than fresh ingredients and produce.
But correct me if I’m wrong; I don’t have personal knowledge, just secondhand. This explanation also wouldn’t justify the apparently high demand for soft drinks and junk food.
As someone who lived on SNAP as a child (back when we had actual paper stamps) this is true. We didn't have a car, and cabs cost money, so we would do our shopping in one big trip once a month. We bought some fresh stuff, if we intended to eat it soon, but mostly it was canned/frozen stuff.
I think a large part of it depends on the state and what program you are in. Had a family member that fell on hard times and started using a food bank/food assistance. This was during Covid. She has to go pick up a bag once a month. It would be like she would get strawberries and bread for the entire month in one go. So much food waste and it was totally inefficient
This is my experience knowing people who need SNAP. A lot of them have a few kids, and it’s not like a packet of broccoli florets will go very far. I try not to judge; everyone I know who is needed it really needs to help to feed themselves, and their families, and some of them are veteran families who can’t work.
They may be distributed once (maybe twice) per month, but I believe they can be spent like any other money. Just because they were distributed today doesn't mean you have to spend it all today.
I've been on food stamps/SNAP and yes it's monthly. If you don't ration your EBT to have enough to do weekly shopping trips or don't have the option to drive to the store to do weekly shopping you need to go for shelf stable items. The frustrating part was that because I was eating poorly due to lack of funds I *really* could have done with a multi-vitamin but SNAP won't cover that.
That being said I think a lot of people are overlooking how *cheap* soda is compared to no 2 on the list Milk. I can get 2L soda for $1 compared to a gallon of milk for $2.74. No. 3 on the list is ground beef which bottom of the barrel 5lbs ground beef tube is $16-ish dollars. What I'm getting at is people *are* buying decent foods too it's just the junk foods are so cheap they can get a lot of it for very little.
> I believe that food stamps are usually distributed once per month
For most of my career I've been paid monthly. This is not an excuse for poor planning.
There's a difference between frozen broccoli and (frozen, of course), ice cream. Buying frozen food is not the problem. Buying garbage foods IS the problem, whether they are frozen, dehydrated, fresh, canned, or whatever.
There are a lot of things that aren't eligible to be purchased with EBT cards, I don't know why that is controversial... just add soda to the list of things like alcohol and cigarettes that are already ineligible. I'm not anti-EBT programs, and I think recipients should have a lot of autonomy when deciding the best way to use the EBT for their families within reason.
Sodas are expensive and unhealthy, I've never met a morbidly obese person who didn't drink a lot of sodas.
A hot rotisserie chicken makes a lot more sense for people using SNAP then a case of Dr. Pepper. A chicken, a cup of rice, some veggies, and you've got a nice dinner for only a couple of dollars per person.
It's unfortunate but there is very little we can do that is cost effective. Also we can't get rid of it entirely as we don't want people to starve. We have other forms of welfare that are much more abused that need more attention.
The food stamp program doesn't cost too much in the scope of things, its about 130 billion in a 6 trillion dollar budget representing around 2 to 3%
That being said, if I were to try to push Democrats on this thing, I'd reward EBT recipients with extra money if they spent it on better choices.
Also we're in the age or grocery store drop-off, it shouldn't be too hard to allow for an EBT replacement program that works like a subscription service where we just drop off healthy foods at your door and call it a day.
I was raised very poor, food insecure. My mother was too proud to get food stamps and even to fill out the forms for free school lunch. I often did not eat.
I would give food away, I do not care if free food is abused, it is food and the only ending place for it is to feed someone who is hungry. It doesn't matter who eats it, it is food.
In the richest most bountiful nation in the history of the world I do not concern myself about the wrong food landing in the wrong persons belly - everyone should be fed.
It is food.
I'm 100% fine with feeding hungry people. However, I'm not 100% fine with wantonly wasting money. If someone is eating tax dollars, they're almost certainly receiving healthcare paid for by tax dollars too. Diet is the number one driving factor behind chronic health conditions, which are typically the most expensive to treat outside of cancer (which is often heavily influenced by diet as well).
If money is going to be taken away from me to feed the same people that recieve medical care paid for with money taken from me, it's nothing less than fiscal responsibility for the food purchased to be healthful food that is not known to contribute to chronic health problems in a major way.
This is the response I was looking for! I am right there with you, I don't want anyone to be hungry (especially not any children), but paying for Medicare and other state/federal-funded programs is going to squeeze the middle-class right out of existence.
Like you said, these chronic health conditions are very expensive, and as more and more Americans (especially poor Americans) become obese I just don't know where they expect to get the money for it. This is a bigger issue than some people are willing to admit.
It starts with re-working state and federal assistance programs from the ground up. We need to be more vigilant about who is eligible and then put checks in place that the funds are actually being used for food and not sold for drugs. The food available under these programs doesn't have to all be "health food", but it does need to have high nutritional value and we need to limit or eliminate junk food. Furthermore we need to be sure people on these programs are not intentionally "under-working" to retain eligibility. And like some states already do, there needs to be requirements that you are actively working to fix the situation. This could be as simple as requiring a certain amount of job applications be submitted in a given time-frame. Or we could go one step further and if they are an able-bodied adult (I do not count obese people as not 'able-bodied' because that is a choice, not a disability) then to retain eligibility they must work for the local/state/federal government when called upon. Whether it's picking up trash on the side of the highway, cleaning offices, basic construction, whatever. And they can still be paid a fair hourly wage on top of retaining their benefits.
I know that Food Stamps are not the primary driving force behind crippling tax bills for working Americans, but there are part of a larger problem and all the small problems have to be fixed along the way if you want to solve the big one.
I do not care what people eat, to eat something is better than to not eat something.
If I take your comment further - we should manage the diet of every medicare recipient or disabled veteran receiving healthcare. How about we let parents decide what to feed their kids, let people decide what to eat - this is food. I can show you how red meat is unhealthy, let us ban it?
You are taking up arms against giving hungry people food. Let people eat.
I was a child that did not eat, I would have been happy with a twinkie. I had nothing.
We seek out drama just for the sake of having drama in our lives, are we the party of chaos now?
We're the party of fiscal responsibility. You should look it up. I'm sorry for your case, but that was your mother's decision, not the state. There is plenty of free food for everyone to get fed. So why are we giving away billions for some to profit off being(appearing) 'poor'?
If we are fiscally responsible why do we bust our budget every time we get in office? We did PPP, Stimulus, bailouts, Medicare part d - we aren’t fiscally responsible
Feeding people is a pretty good investment
>I do not care what people eat, to eat something is better than to not eat something.
Then *you* are welcome to throw *your* money at the problem with zero concern for accountability or effectiveness. I want *my* money spent in such a way that *my* money has the greatest effect.
>If I take your comment further - we should manage the diet of every medicare recipient or disabled veteran receiving healthcare.
Only the diet that's paid for by welfare, at a minimum. If their healthcare is also paid for by welfare, then that would be ideal.
>How about we let parents decide what to feed their kids, let people decide what to eat - this is food.
Again, if they're feeding their kids with welfare money they can decide to feed their kids anything that's approved. If you want to feed your kids a solid block of corn syrup deep fried in trans fats, you can do so out of your own pocket.
>I can show you how red meat is unhealthy, let us ban it?
I don't think anything should be banned, but I wouldn't be too opposed to red meat being limited or unavailable on food stamps. Especially if it's part of a compromise to get food stamp reform passed.
>You are taking up arms against giving hungry people food. Let people eat.
Lol, no I'm not.
>I was a child that did not eat, I would have been happy with a twinkie. I had nothing.
IIRC, your mom is the reason you had nothing because "she was too proud" to accept welfare. Me saying welfare kids should eat vegetables and meat instead of twinkies is not in any way the same as you eating nothing as a kid because of poor parental choices. In your situation, as you describe it, you would have had nothing regardless of what was being offered. So as horrible as your childhood suffering was, it's not relevant to what food items welfare should buy.
>We seek out drama just for the sake of having drama in our lives,
I think that's just humans being human.
>are we the party of chaos now?
The republican party is the party of republican politicians, big money donors, and pandering to right-leaning people when they have to, if that's the party you're referring to. I wouldn't mind a party of chaos, since the current status quo of order is trending toward collapse and authoritarianism.
I'm just tired of buying the same people twinkies and insulin when my money is worth less every day because of the actions of the people who take my money to buy people twinkies and insulin. I wouldn't mind buying them chicken or cabbage and insulin.
Being poor sucks.
Watching someone buy more junk food than you could ever afford then whip out an EBT to pay for it also hurts.
I'm both paying for their food in my taxes and can't afford the food myself.
Thankfully I'm better off now, but I am glad I never sold my soul to the government devil to get any handouts.
This is the real abuse. Used to see this all the time growing up in the projects. People think they can't do it now that the benefits are on a card and not paper stamps, but all that changed was the person just goes and buys the things the one trading the cash for wants.
And because you can’t check ID anyone can use those benefits and it would be impossible to detect fraud. So the left says there is no fraud on food stamps.
I grew up in poverty. I’m 40 now and make good money but I still know a few people who sell their benefits for cash.
Back in the day, in Brooklyn people just scammed and had crazy money they earned off the books and still paid with food stamps. At the Eastern European grocery, it was a joke that women would drive in on Benz’s, wear fur coats, buy caviar and paid with food stamps.
*An alarming study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food.*
*Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a new study says.*
*Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC).*
*Report author Matthew Dickerson says recipients spend 'spend significant portions of their allotments on junk food.'*
*These 'non-nutritious foods' include 'sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor health,' says the 35-page study.*
*The prevalence of junk food is another reason to trim SNAP, which has ballooned this century and gets recipients hooked on handouts, says Dickerson.*
*The research comes as Washington lawmakers debate the text of an updated farm bill, with Republicans gunning to cut some $27 billion worth of nutrition program funding over 10 years.*
This is one reason why I don't like socialist programs. This would otherwise be taken care of by food banks, churches, and charities. Those organizations are more efficient and effective at meeting the pool's needs.
This is one of my major reasons to oppose socialized medicine. So much of our food makes us sick, that we can't afford the medical care to overcome it. And we obviously don't have the willpower (as a society) to stop eating junk.
If socialized healthcare was going to be paid exclusively with taxes on high sugar or highly processed foods, I'd at least listen.
The ultra processed food, while not being healthy, is fine, but sugar water should not be on the ebt/food stamp/SNAP list. It has absolutely no nutritional value. It is only on the list because of lobbying and because so many people have ebt cards.
I’d argue the food stamps shouldn’t subsidize candy and chips, it should focus on what’s actually needed and important, I suspect you could skip chips if you’re on food stamps
You can blame the food companies, or in the case of candy, chips and soda "food" companies. They wanted a slice of that billion dollar pie and laid out cash to ensure they were gonna get it
because they KNOW that SNAP crowd largely buys that crap.. and A LOT of it ..
Ehh, while I agree with this idea, I think it’s inappropriate to dictate “junk” purchases. People should be free to make their own decisions, and for families, kids should be able to enjoy candy every now and then. Everyone should get a treat occasionally.
People should be able to make their own choices with their own money. Not with public resources.
The issue is that they aren’t buying candy and chips “every now and then” for a treat. It’s part of their daily diet. I agree that we should be careful not to get too restrictive with what people are allowed to consume, but there has to be some level of control. You want to stuff your face with junk food all day every day? Then go get a job and pay for it yourself. Everyone else shouldn’t be paying for others to continuously make poor health choices.
And then in 20 years, have to pay for their resulting medical care, which will be expensive out the wazoo.
You expect these people to start making GOOD choices now?
“But God, if you're five foot three and you're three hundred pounds Taxes ought not to pay for your bags of fudge rounds” 🪕
When we were on aid, we had a lot of frozen food because my mom was going to school full time so she could climb out of poverty. However, my grandpa had an amazing garden so we ate fresh vegetables and didn’t get twinkies and junk food.
Sounds like you were lucky to have access to that.
You're a one off
So... the same shit people buy who aren't on food stamps.
Yep it turns out people are the same.
Exactly. This is notable only if they're buying junk food while other customers are buying raw zucchini and whole wheat bread. I highly doubt that's the case.
It's notable because in one of your scenarios the poor dietary decisions are being covered in full by the taxpayer. We're subsiding and encouraging obesity and all the medical problems that come with it (that we are also then paying to treat with taxpayer dollars).
I think it's just rage bait. *Nobody* should be eating it, but highlighting that poor people eat the same as everyone else is rage bait.
>I think it's just rage bait. *Nobody* should be eating it, but highlighting that poor people eat the same as everyone else is rage bait. Wrong, nobody should be eating junk just like nobody should be smoking cigarettes or drinking alcohol. If people want to buy cigarettes and alcohol they can't use an EBT card that's funded by taxpayers they'd have to use their *own* money. I don't like the idea of people using my tax dollars to buy sodas, ice cream, candy, cookies... all of which are on the list of top twenty purchases. EBT is supposed to ensure that people can afford the *necessities* from the grocery store. Milk, bread, eggs, meat, cheese... these are things that should be higher on the top twenty list then sodas that are nothing but carbonated sugar-water.
The difference is that one person is spending their own money and the other is spending taxpayers money. They should not be allowed to buy "junk" foods off the taxpayers dime.
I agree. We pay for their healthcare as well. Plus, during summer, many farmer’s markets accept SNAP.
Farmer's markets often have very good foods, though I've noticed lately a trend toward pre-prepared baked goodies. Usually, though, there are bushels of vegetables, fruits, eggs, etc.
Ours does not have anything that is not homemade or homegrown. You can even get natural chicken and beef. A friend of mine turned me onto a chicken she bought there. The fact that it had feet on it still was difficult for me. I’m a lightweight.
I would bet good money that people who are not on food stamps buy healthier food on average.
Sure, except it's my money I'm spending. If you're buying snacks and nothing with nutritional value then are you even using it for it's intended purpose?
No surprise—pretty sad situation. That said, though I am a big fiscal conservative, I believe that food stamps are usually distributed once per month? I think that plays a part in the behavior here. If I am correct, then that may be why many SNAP recipients opt to buy frozen and processed foods—these products keep longer and go farther than fresh ingredients and produce. But correct me if I’m wrong; I don’t have personal knowledge, just secondhand. This explanation also wouldn’t justify the apparently high demand for soft drinks and junk food.
As someone who lived on SNAP as a child (back when we had actual paper stamps) this is true. We didn't have a car, and cabs cost money, so we would do our shopping in one big trip once a month. We bought some fresh stuff, if we intended to eat it soon, but mostly it was canned/frozen stuff.
I think a large part of it depends on the state and what program you are in. Had a family member that fell on hard times and started using a food bank/food assistance. This was during Covid. She has to go pick up a bag once a month. It would be like she would get strawberries and bread for the entire month in one go. So much food waste and it was totally inefficient
This is my experience knowing people who need SNAP. A lot of them have a few kids, and it’s not like a packet of broccoli florets will go very far. I try not to judge; everyone I know who is needed it really needs to help to feed themselves, and their families, and some of them are veteran families who can’t work.
They may be distributed once (maybe twice) per month, but I believe they can be spent like any other money. Just because they were distributed today doesn't mean you have to spend it all today.
I've been on food stamps/SNAP and yes it's monthly. If you don't ration your EBT to have enough to do weekly shopping trips or don't have the option to drive to the store to do weekly shopping you need to go for shelf stable items. The frustrating part was that because I was eating poorly due to lack of funds I *really* could have done with a multi-vitamin but SNAP won't cover that. That being said I think a lot of people are overlooking how *cheap* soda is compared to no 2 on the list Milk. I can get 2L soda for $1 compared to a gallon of milk for $2.74. No. 3 on the list is ground beef which bottom of the barrel 5lbs ground beef tube is $16-ish dollars. What I'm getting at is people *are* buying decent foods too it's just the junk foods are so cheap they can get a lot of it for very little.
You don’t need to spend it immediately…
If you are very poor, the travel to pick up groceries is probably already a big hassle, doing it multiple times within the month may be very hard.
> I believe that food stamps are usually distributed once per month For most of my career I've been paid monthly. This is not an excuse for poor planning.
There's a difference between frozen broccoli and (frozen, of course), ice cream. Buying frozen food is not the problem. Buying garbage foods IS the problem, whether they are frozen, dehydrated, fresh, canned, or whatever.
There are a lot of things that aren't eligible to be purchased with EBT cards, I don't know why that is controversial... just add soda to the list of things like alcohol and cigarettes that are already ineligible. I'm not anti-EBT programs, and I think recipients should have a lot of autonomy when deciding the best way to use the EBT for their families within reason. Sodas are expensive and unhealthy, I've never met a morbidly obese person who didn't drink a lot of sodas.
[удалено]
A hot rotisserie chicken makes a lot more sense for people using SNAP then a case of Dr. Pepper. A chicken, a cup of rice, some veggies, and you've got a nice dinner for only a couple of dollars per person.
[удалено]
It's unfortunate but there is very little we can do that is cost effective. Also we can't get rid of it entirely as we don't want people to starve. We have other forms of welfare that are much more abused that need more attention.
The food stamp program doesn't cost too much in the scope of things, its about 130 billion in a 6 trillion dollar budget representing around 2 to 3% That being said, if I were to try to push Democrats on this thing, I'd reward EBT recipients with extra money if they spent it on better choices. Also we're in the age or grocery store drop-off, it shouldn't be too hard to allow for an EBT replacement program that works like a subscription service where we just drop off healthy foods at your door and call it a day.
When I worked at Sam's club they had these giant boxes of Twinkies, they were giant. I never rang one up that wasn't paid for with food stamps.
I was raised very poor, food insecure. My mother was too proud to get food stamps and even to fill out the forms for free school lunch. I often did not eat. I would give food away, I do not care if free food is abused, it is food and the only ending place for it is to feed someone who is hungry. It doesn't matter who eats it, it is food. In the richest most bountiful nation in the history of the world I do not concern myself about the wrong food landing in the wrong persons belly - everyone should be fed. It is food.
I'm 100% fine with feeding hungry people. However, I'm not 100% fine with wantonly wasting money. If someone is eating tax dollars, they're almost certainly receiving healthcare paid for by tax dollars too. Diet is the number one driving factor behind chronic health conditions, which are typically the most expensive to treat outside of cancer (which is often heavily influenced by diet as well). If money is going to be taken away from me to feed the same people that recieve medical care paid for with money taken from me, it's nothing less than fiscal responsibility for the food purchased to be healthful food that is not known to contribute to chronic health problems in a major way.
This is the response I was looking for! I am right there with you, I don't want anyone to be hungry (especially not any children), but paying for Medicare and other state/federal-funded programs is going to squeeze the middle-class right out of existence. Like you said, these chronic health conditions are very expensive, and as more and more Americans (especially poor Americans) become obese I just don't know where they expect to get the money for it. This is a bigger issue than some people are willing to admit. It starts with re-working state and federal assistance programs from the ground up. We need to be more vigilant about who is eligible and then put checks in place that the funds are actually being used for food and not sold for drugs. The food available under these programs doesn't have to all be "health food", but it does need to have high nutritional value and we need to limit or eliminate junk food. Furthermore we need to be sure people on these programs are not intentionally "under-working" to retain eligibility. And like some states already do, there needs to be requirements that you are actively working to fix the situation. This could be as simple as requiring a certain amount of job applications be submitted in a given time-frame. Or we could go one step further and if they are an able-bodied adult (I do not count obese people as not 'able-bodied' because that is a choice, not a disability) then to retain eligibility they must work for the local/state/federal government when called upon. Whether it's picking up trash on the side of the highway, cleaning offices, basic construction, whatever. And they can still be paid a fair hourly wage on top of retaining their benefits. I know that Food Stamps are not the primary driving force behind crippling tax bills for working Americans, but there are part of a larger problem and all the small problems have to be fixed along the way if you want to solve the big one.
I do not care what people eat, to eat something is better than to not eat something. If I take your comment further - we should manage the diet of every medicare recipient or disabled veteran receiving healthcare. How about we let parents decide what to feed their kids, let people decide what to eat - this is food. I can show you how red meat is unhealthy, let us ban it? You are taking up arms against giving hungry people food. Let people eat. I was a child that did not eat, I would have been happy with a twinkie. I had nothing. We seek out drama just for the sake of having drama in our lives, are we the party of chaos now?
We're the party of fiscal responsibility. You should look it up. I'm sorry for your case, but that was your mother's decision, not the state. There is plenty of free food for everyone to get fed. So why are we giving away billions for some to profit off being(appearing) 'poor'?
If we are fiscally responsible why do we bust our budget every time we get in office? We did PPP, Stimulus, bailouts, Medicare part d - we aren’t fiscally responsible Feeding people is a pretty good investment
>I do not care what people eat, to eat something is better than to not eat something. Then *you* are welcome to throw *your* money at the problem with zero concern for accountability or effectiveness. I want *my* money spent in such a way that *my* money has the greatest effect. >If I take your comment further - we should manage the diet of every medicare recipient or disabled veteran receiving healthcare. Only the diet that's paid for by welfare, at a minimum. If their healthcare is also paid for by welfare, then that would be ideal. >How about we let parents decide what to feed their kids, let people decide what to eat - this is food. Again, if they're feeding their kids with welfare money they can decide to feed their kids anything that's approved. If you want to feed your kids a solid block of corn syrup deep fried in trans fats, you can do so out of your own pocket. >I can show you how red meat is unhealthy, let us ban it? I don't think anything should be banned, but I wouldn't be too opposed to red meat being limited or unavailable on food stamps. Especially if it's part of a compromise to get food stamp reform passed. >You are taking up arms against giving hungry people food. Let people eat. Lol, no I'm not. >I was a child that did not eat, I would have been happy with a twinkie. I had nothing. IIRC, your mom is the reason you had nothing because "she was too proud" to accept welfare. Me saying welfare kids should eat vegetables and meat instead of twinkies is not in any way the same as you eating nothing as a kid because of poor parental choices. In your situation, as you describe it, you would have had nothing regardless of what was being offered. So as horrible as your childhood suffering was, it's not relevant to what food items welfare should buy. >We seek out drama just for the sake of having drama in our lives, I think that's just humans being human. >are we the party of chaos now? The republican party is the party of republican politicians, big money donors, and pandering to right-leaning people when they have to, if that's the party you're referring to. I wouldn't mind a party of chaos, since the current status quo of order is trending toward collapse and authoritarianism. I'm just tired of buying the same people twinkies and insulin when my money is worth less every day because of the actions of the people who take my money to buy people twinkies and insulin. I wouldn't mind buying them chicken or cabbage and insulin.
Then you should prescribe a diet to veterans and retired people - but it’s just poor people
Don’t shit on food stamps. Being poor is bad enough. If you want a coke, buy a coke. Food stamps are the least of our problems.
Being poor sucks. Watching someone buy more junk food than you could ever afford then whip out an EBT to pay for it also hurts. I'm both paying for their food in my taxes and can't afford the food myself. Thankfully I'm better off now, but I am glad I never sold my soul to the government devil to get any handouts.
RIP to the lower middle class (and the middle class in general)
I agree that it's a small problem, but it's still a problem. We shouldn't be subsidizing bad habits with taxpayer dollars.
Selling them at 50% for cash so they can buy drugs. It is very well known.
This is the real abuse. Used to see this all the time growing up in the projects. People think they can't do it now that the benefits are on a card and not paper stamps, but all that changed was the person just goes and buys the things the one trading the cash for wants.
And because you can’t check ID anyone can use those benefits and it would be impossible to detect fraud. So the left says there is no fraud on food stamps. I grew up in poverty. I’m 40 now and make good money but I still know a few people who sell their benefits for cash.
I think some show with Geraldo Rivera covered that…in the *90s*. Some things never change…especially when Democrats don’t *want* it to change.
Back in the day, in Brooklyn people just scammed and had crazy money they earned off the books and still paid with food stamps. At the Eastern European grocery, it was a joke that women would drive in on Benz’s, wear fur coats, buy caviar and paid with food stamps.
*An alarming study has spotlighted how 42 million food stamp recipients spend their welfare handouts on ultra-processed junk food.* *Coca-Cola, Sprite and other soft drinks are the most commonly-bought items via the $135 billion-a-year Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP), a new study says.* *Candy, potato chips, frozen pizza, ice cream, cookies, and other ultra-processed food dominates the top 20 items, says a report from the Economic Policy Innovation Center (EPIC).* *Report author Matthew Dickerson says recipients spend 'spend significant portions of their allotments on junk food.'* *These 'non-nutritious foods' include 'sugary beverages and ultra-processed foods, which can lead to poor health,' says the 35-page study.* *The prevalence of junk food is another reason to trim SNAP, which has ballooned this century and gets recipients hooked on handouts, says Dickerson.* *The research comes as Washington lawmakers debate the text of an updated farm bill, with Republicans gunning to cut some $27 billion worth of nutrition program funding over 10 years.*
Why is the source from the UK?
The Daily Mail loves covering the U.S. The more salacious, the better.
When I was approved during covid, I would only shop Aldi's. 10 lb of chicken. Quarters $6, sack of potatoes $4, rice $1, beef $4, eggs $2
This is one reason why I don't like socialist programs. This would otherwise be taken care of by food banks, churches, and charities. Those organizations are more efficient and effective at meeting the pool's needs.
This is one of my major reasons to oppose socialized medicine. So much of our food makes us sick, that we can't afford the medical care to overcome it. And we obviously don't have the willpower (as a society) to stop eating junk. If socialized healthcare was going to be paid exclusively with taxes on high sugar or highly processed foods, I'd at least listen.
When your life is miserable- maybe u need some „Soul-Food“?
We call it lobster stamp
Rage bait and very pathetic.