http://www.washingtonpost.com/blogs/wonkblog/wp/2015/04/03/missouri-republicans-are-trying-to-ban-food-stamp-recipients-from-buying-steak-and-seafood/


In 2013, Fox News proudly broadcast an interview with a young food stamp recipient who claimed to be using the government benefit to purchase lobster and sushi.

"This is the way I want to live and I don’t really see anything changing," Jason Greenslate explained to Fox. “It’s free food; it’s awesome."

That story fit a longtime conservative suspicion that poor people use food stamps to purchase luxury items. Now, a Republican state lawmaker in Missouri is pushing for legislation that would stop people like Greenslate and severely limit what food stamp recipients can buy. The bill being proposed would ban the purchase with food stamps of "cookies, chips, energy drinks, soft drinks, seafood or steak."

"The intention of the bill is to get the food stamp program back to its original intent, which is nutrition assistance," said Rick Brattin, the representative who is sponsoring the proposed legislation.



Curbing food stamp purchases of cookies, chips, energy drinks, and soft drinks at least falls in line with the food stamp program's mission to provide nutrition. Nutrition experts are already discussing whether to remove unhealthy items from the list of foods participants can buy.

But seafood and steak? Seafood has been shown, time and again, to be a healthy part of any diet. And steak is such a broad category that it's essentially banning people from buying any flat cuts of beef, from porterhouse to flank.

"It just seems really repressive," said Mark Rank, a professor at Washington University and author of the book Living on the Edge: The Realities of Welfare in America. "I don't see how it makes any sense to ban some of these foods. Fish is something that should really be in your diet. And steak, what does that mean in this context?"

Brattin admits that the language might need some tweaking. "My intention wasn't to get rid of canned tuna and fish sticks," he said. But he also insists that people are abusing the system by purchasing luxury foods, and believes that that must be stopped, even if it ends up requiring the inclusion of other less luxurious items.

"I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards," he said. "When I can't afford it on my pay, I don't want people on the taxpayer's dime to afford those kinds of foods either."

I hate her

system when she lost her job at Chrysler. They got laid off with severance and her husband was still employed at Garmin. This broad goes and gets food stamps - bragged about how she only listed herself and her child and got $400/ mo - and now she wants to criticize how others (people who actually need it) spend their money. She also likes to forget that her mother was on food stamps for most of her childhood.

I hate her too!

"You want them to eat vienna sausage and hotpockets because that's what they deserve? You don't think they DESERVE good food".

http://wapo.st/1NI3RJV

its bizarre

>its bizarre

It's always fun to remind these fucks of the fact that they certainly don't mind making a living off of these people. It never goes over well and I love it.

Gov'ment cheese should become a thing of the past. Get em that Tillamook!!!

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I'm tryna be better off, not better than...

i can understand (even if i don't agree) about something like soda that has no nutritional value

but seafood and steak? they're basically saying their goal isn't nutrition, it's actually to stop people on public assistance from ever enjoying anything

a flow?

>

If that's how much you get a month in assistance it doesn't cost the tax payer more money if you spend that amount on steak versus spending it. on some bull shit food.

Plus simple math/budgeting would dictate someone isn't going "waste" the little bit of aid they get for the month on a weeks worth of food

steak stir fry over a big plate of rice than hot pockets and frozen pizza.

That $200 limit isn't gonna be increased because someone spent their stamps on steak and shrimp instead of beans and rice. It's a dumb thing to be mad about.




Since 1976

its very telling of people that react this way to this idea

>Plus simple math/budgeting would dictate someone isn't going
>"waste" the little bit of aid they get for the month on a
>weeks worth of food

That's wishful thinking and while some people are certainly budget conscious, you're clearly oblivious here.

how does that cost the taxpayer more money?



I would hope after the first few months they would catch on to the fact they're starving 2/3 of the month.

Also another way allowing them to buy quality food SAVES us money is by cutting down on Medical bills. If you're eating nothing but cheap, processed tv dinners you're eventually going to find yourself in medical trouble and who has to pay for those emergency room visits

>how does that cost the taxpayer more money?6. 6. I have a great

I dunno, sounds like a question you should ask to someone who makes that argument. I know I certainly didn't.

>I would hope after the first few months they would catch on to
>the fact they're starving 2/3 of the month.

That's just not the case with a lot of people. Many are just not that great at shopping. Many don't have the discipline to learn. Others don't even the means to stretch those dollars. A homeless person doesn't have the means to purchase and store perishables, for example.

>Also another way allowing them to buy quality food SAVES us
>money is by cutting down on Medical bills. If you're eating
>nothing but cheap, processed tv dinners you're eventually
>going to find yourself in medical trouble and who has to pay
>for those emergency room visits

Cool. I never made those arguments so i have no idea why you're asking me like i did.

first post.

This ain't it.

What is "steak" anyhow? So vague.

What if you buy a frozen dinner with shrimp in it? Is that a sin?

Not only is this dumb, it's un-enforceble.

https://ioneglobalgrind.files.wordpress.com/2013/11/tumblr_m39rql6cxr1r7zpado1_400.gif?w=600&h=335

Oh, just petty assholes.

>Brattin admits that the language might need some tweaking. "My
>intention wasn't to get rid of canned tuna and fish sticks,"

lol poor people can eat all the fish sticks they want! I'm a reasonable man!


>"I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs
>with their EBT cards," he said. "When I can't afford it on my
>pay, I don't want people on the taxpayer's dime to afford
>those kinds of foods either."

A state representative "can't afford" a $10 filet at the grocery store? Yeah um...

steak and shrimp dont bother me
prepared steak and shrimp does

further,
no processed bs like snack cakes and potato chips either

like i said
like WIC

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"And the Lord’s servant must not be quarrelsome but must be kind to everyone, able to teach, not resentful." ~ 2 Tim 2:4