Bill proposes ending purchases of steak, cake, lobster & more with food stamps

[Liberal_in_LA]

http://www.startnetzero.net/news/read/video/article/buzz60-bill_proposes_ending_purchases_of_steak_cake_more-zazoom
Bill prohibiting use of food stamps to buy lobster, steak proposed in NY

New York State Senator Patty Ritchie has presented a bill that would prohibit public aid recipients from buying luxury foods with food stamps.

Specifically mentioned are fancy steaks and lobster.
news
Bill prohibiting use of food stamps to buy lobster, steak proposed in NY
Feb 22nd 2016 1:50PM

New York State Senator Patty Ritchie has presented a bill that would prohibit public aid recipients from buying luxury foods with food stamps.

Specifically mentioned are fancy steaks and lobster.



The measure has been met with criticism.

Jeremy Saunders, an advocacy group leader in the state, told the Journal News, "This is a Republican attempt to make it appear that poor people use tax dollars to buy steak and lobster."

The bill also places exclusions on junk foods, as, according to a memo, "At a time when our state and nation are struggling with an obesity epidemic, it is critically important that taxpayer-funded programs help low-income consumers make wise and healthy food choices."

Notably, a 2007 report published by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found no link between food stamp use and either unhealthy dietary habits or obesity.
http://www.aol.com/article/2016/02/22/bill-prohibiting-use-of-food-stamps-to-buy-lobster-steak-propos/21316774/

[noretreatnosurrender]

1. Authoritarians

I see another thing here too. Authoritarians always want to tell other people how to live their lives.

[Jeffersons Ghost]

2. K&R so poor children do not get birthday cakes with this law?

[kentauros]

3. Or birthday-celebrating adults for that matter.

I wonder how long before they try to forbid the buying of the ingredients of a cake under the guide of trying to save them from themselves?

[Bigredhunk]

4. So Sick Of This Bullshit Conservative Obsession

Can't tell you how many times I've read/heard the "I saw someone buy steak with food stamps...I can't afford steak!" Yes you fucking can. If someone getting food stamps spends $200 (or whatever they get each month) on caviar, so what?? They're choosing to buy (a) few expensive things instead of a lot of cheap crap. You can do the same thing with your shopping dollars. You can buy a small amount of expensive shit or a lot of cheap shit.

Who cares what people buy?

Wait, I guess I do. Now that I think about tit, I'm going to have to go check out the cupboards and fridges of all the farm subsidy receivers around Iowa.

[Maraya1969]

5. Punishing the poor again. For being poor.

[quaker bill]

6. It is actually worse than imagined

The basic assumption here is that poor people are poor because they do not work hard and make bad decisions. It is therefore the role of government to "fix them".

First, in substantial measure it is untrue. Most people on Government assistance are working, as "welfare reform" required it. Second is the notion that government can make "better" decisions for them, that it can "fix" them. Government cannot even make good decisions for itself anymore.

These people are for the very large part, not broken (the deinstitutionalized mentally ill aside). They do not need to be "fixed". They work jobs that do not pay a living wage and have no benefits. They live in a world of payday lenders, furniture rentals, and buy here pay here car lots (crappy cars at twice the price and high interest). Because they have no bank account, it costs anywhere from 5 to 15 percent to cash their pitiful paychecks. It costs more, a lot more to be poor.

There are ways to fix a lot of this, but it has nothing to do with steaks and lobster, or otherwise looking down on the poor. We need to raise the minimum wage and crack down on the poverty industry.

[SammyWinstonJack]

8. I'm getting real fed up with republican politicians and the low

information voters who support them, thereby allowing them to harm the rest of us who don't support their draconian measures.

[Vinca]

7. So I guess the poor aren't allowed to buy marked down steak that is still perfectly good?

All kinds of meals you can make with it. Just because you buy a steak doesn't mean you're living large. I love the policing of junk food they're proposing, too. If they feel so strongly about it, the bill should be to outlaw junk food not junk food for poor people.

[Bettie]

10. If you hit the grocery store on the right day

steak can be cheaper than hamburger.

I'm so tired of people who think that poor people don't work hard enough. Getting ahead these days requires more than hard work, it requires a whole lot of luck and a hand up, which far too many are unwilling to give.

Plus, people don't leave the workforce until far later in life, since retirement funding is no longer done (no pensions, only bullshit 401Ks), so there is no place on the ladder to move up to and raises are practically nonexistent.

[Vinca]

11. Exactly. Especially what you said about luck.

It can be the lucky gene club or luck landing the job of your dreams or luck meeting a person who opens a door. If you look at some of the obscenely wealthy people in the world, it's clear they didn't get there on hard work and brains.

[Bettie]

13. It is sad

because there was a time when hard work and dedication got you somewhere.

It still can, but you also have to be in the right place at the right time and get noticed by just the right person to actually get ahead.

Most people who start from nothing and end up really wealthy had that moment when they got the right person to pay attention at the right time. That is luck.

There is hard work there, but poor people work their butts off too, usually for no recognition and no real reward beyond the need to work until the day they die for virtually nothing.

[Orrex]

9. Meh. I've seen those same statements made here at DU.

Sure, around here it's typically dressed up in bullshit claims about "concern for nutrition" and "making healthy choices," but in the end it's exactly the same: micromanaging busybodies are desperate to make choices on behalf of (and against the wishes of) fully functional adults.

Yes, it's disgusting, but it sure as hell ain't a Republicans-only issue.

[KentuckyWoman]

12. Better idea - rewards

Hows about they set it up so the retailer gets paid for fruits and veggies or whatever but the amount DOES NOT come off the food card. If the goal is really about nutrition then this is the way to go. They've got the technology.

But of course this BS bill has nothing to do with nutrition.