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Florida Lawmakers Want To Make Soft Drinks Off Limits For Food Stamps
December 1, 2017
Two Republican state lawmakers this week filed proposals that call for barring the use of food stamps to buy soft drinks. Sen. Aaron Bean, R-Fernandina Beach, and Rep. Ralph Massullo, R-Lecanto, filed proposals (SM 1016 and HM 847) that would urge Congress to make soft drinks off limits in the aid program formally known as the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP.
The proposals, which will be considered during the 2018 legislative session, are non-binding “memorials” to Congress.
The proposals, in part, say soft drinks are “nutrient poor but rich in calories and can lead to nutritional deficiencies and health disorders including obesity, heart disease, high blood pressure, and diabetes.”
They said state and local governments have sought federal permission in the past to prevent SNAP benefits from being used to pay for soft drinks but have been rejected by the U.S. Department of Agriculture. As a result, the memorials would ask Congress to take action on the issue.
by The News Service of Flroida
Comments
29 Responses to “Florida Lawmakers Want To Make Soft Drinks Off Limits For Food Stamps”
@Kym
Why should anyone listen to your suggestions ? Apparently, you don’t make good decisions. You should have thought of your financial means before you had a toddler and infant.
Too many having children before being financially stable. You just cheat your children out of their childhood. Then again, if your a 40 year old woman who wears short shorts with “baby girl” across the rear end, your actions are suspect anyway.
CONTEMPLATING:
“those who do have an issue with it, why do you not concern yourselves with corporate welfare?”
How many Pepsis are the corporations buying with EBTs?
Corporate welfare – Wikipedia
“Corporate welfare is a term that analogizes corporate subsidies to welfare payments for the poor. The term is often used to describe a government’s bestowal of money grants, tax breaks, or other special favorable treatment for corporations.”
One would think there might be a difference. Give a $100 tax break to a corporation in EXCHANGE for a binding promise to bring in a thousand jobs paying $100,000 per year for forty years might be a fair exchange.
If the break is higher or the jobs fewer or lower paying or not guaranteed to last as long, it might be a bad deal. Depends on the deal.
Which one costs more, does more, improves more? Free Pepsi or some evil tax break?
It is always interesting when someone considers NOT taking money from a person to be welfare.
David for nutritious meals & better deals
@ R C. There is no pizza place @ Nine Mile and Pine Forest. There is a Shell Station with a convenience store and checking with a friend who works there, they don’t sell pizza.
I am not surprised at the comments here that vilify the poor. After all, we do live in a conservative area and the onus is upon the conservatives who describe themselves as Christian to vilify the poor. Cutting out sodas from the SNAP program will not help. It is another mean spirited way to attack the poor people in Florida. For those who call themselves Christians but get angry because some poor person dares to buy a soft drink with their EBT card, perhaps it is time to really look at why you call yourself a Christian when you clearly do not follow Jesus’ teachings. For pete’s sake, let them enjoy a soda.
And those who do have an issue with it, why do you not concern yourselves with corporate welfare?
I agree that we should go back to giving out meat, cheese, milk, sugar, and canned goods. It makes me want to cry when I see someone pay for $16.99 per pound Yellowfin Tuna and jumbo peeled and deveined shrimp at local seafood market with EBT card. That’s just wrong.
It’s food stamps, not convienent store free drinks.
Should be used to buy family food to make it through and feed your family. Not so you can stop by the convienent store for drinks and a candy bar.
All these convienent stores now accepting ebt…they don’t want to lose out on that money either.
Need to be accepted only at grocery stores or where groceries are sold.
If you don’t know how to make cookies with the ingredients that are allowed for purchase with SNAP / EBT, (sugar, flour, eggs), just goggle it on your Iphone. Alot of people care more about their damn phone than feeding their children.
It seems the true deplorables are the poor.
be·grudge: give reluctantly or resentfully.
The money they save buy only allowing the essentials foods . Teaching welfare receivers how to half a pound of hamburger meat to make two meals for your families and many more ways to save !!! Maybe they could put funds into lowering health insurance and deductibles so working class Americans can get good health care .
Oh no !!! I woke up that was just a dream !!!!
Pizza place on 9 mile and Pine Forest lets you buy a pizza with an EBT card and charges you $1.00 cash to cook it and serve it to you.
Restaurant style dining our tax money. Should be illegal.
REGARDING:
“The Bible, God’s word says that if a man doesn’t work then don’t t let the bum eat!!!!”
But it doesn’t say anything about drinking, so they are safe.
“some cannot stand the idea of a poor person drinking a pepsi”
It DOES seem cruel, but if you want to force them to drink Pepsi, rather than permitting Royal Crown Cola….
“While I can understand a limit on empty calories, these calories make all of us happy and all people need some enjoyment in life.”
Good point. Perhaps recreational drugs should be added to the list since we are favoring happiness over health. Done right, they would be alive and drawing off of others a shorter time.
“If our taxes didn’t go to the less fortunate then what would they go to? ”
Actually, taxes should be levied to pay governmental expenses. You don’t actually HAVE to tax if you don’t really need the money. The question is what is needed and what is nice to give as long as somebody else is paying for it.
“some companies dont want to hire homeless or people that cant dress nice.”
You don’t want your employees to scare off the customers or your business goes OUT of business. Nonetheless, The Salvation Army will provide you with good used clothes at a low price — came in handy when I was working my way through college, best clothes I ever owned.
“What difference does it make what they spend it on, it is all the same money going out.
….
“Maybe you think if poor people can’t drink a soda, it will put more money in your pockets. It won’t”
If it doesn’t matter what they spend the money on, why give it at all?
And it isn’t a matter of putting more money in their pockets but of possibly taking less OUT of their pockets if not really needed as you imply.
……………………………………………
If you want to help people, help them.
If you want to make them happy, go ahead and do it yourself.
Just please understand you are hurting some to either help others or just make them happy. Don’t treat taxpayers as dirt to be trodden upon. That isn’t nice.
If you ask the citizens to pay for a program, be prepared to justify it.
David good people, for good things
(and especially for RC)
I don’t have a problem with restrictions against soda but where do you stop? No cookies, no chips, no macaroni (which is a staple for kids now days). What I do have a problem with is the fact that low income families have to figure out how to purchase essentials like toilet tissue, soap, laundry detergent. How are they going to feel better about themselves and striving to better their life when they can’t keep clean. Kids getting bullied because they are not clean and possibly have an odor issue. Nothing has a simple solution.
@ Grand Locust. My parents (yes a two-parent home) raised five children without using food stamps and no, we did not have soft drinks in the house, nor did we have junk food. It’s not about humiliation, it’s about living within your means. Food Stamps and other assistance programs should be a temporary fix to help people THROUGH situations, not allow them to camp out IN the situations forever.
Same with the “free” cell phones. The commercial for that stated “everyone deserves a cell phone”. I beg to differ. Everyone does not “deserve” a cell phone. If a person wants a cell phone, get a job and buy one. The more the government (read “tax-paying workers”) provides, the less a person will strive to be self-reliant.
What difference does it make what they spend it on, it is all the same money going out.
And shall we propose to say how these pols can spend their taxpayer funded salaries? Should we limit how fine a tailored suit they can buy with their taxpayer money? How nice a car they can drive? How nice a house they can live in? Take a deep breath boys, and worry about something that matters, like Prez Trump: protecting the interests of your rich buddies, or like Prez Trump, your own.
Maybe you think if poor people can’t drink a soda, it will put more money in your pockets. It won’t. Or maybe you sit around and dream up ways to put poor people in their place.
The government is the biggest enabler when it comes to people not wanting to do anything but sit home and wait for that check in the mail. There are to many people with the goal of living off the Government. Did they serve their Country in the military? Probably not. Did they put in 20 years plus getting up at 4:30 am to go to work where they could buy Pepsi for their family? Probably not. Do they respect their Country and their community and try to make it a better place? Probably not. This is not about Government Control it’s about our money, my money, your money. We, the people that got up and went to work all those years to provide a roof over our family’s head, paid more taxes than we thought we should have, paid for health insurance that was way to expensive. We did it because we wanted a better life for our families. Not because we necessarily wanted to. If your getting SNAP money don’t complain about what you can’t buy with it. It’s not like you worked for it !!!
if youre poor and cant help it thats another question but some companies dont want to hire homeless or people that cant dress nice.what burns me up that non american citizens get free health care and i have to pay for it.i dont care who gets a pepsi but we pay high premiums for health ins.and non americans get it free.not fair to us working people and not fair to vetrans that live on the street.
I work 40+ hours a week and I have to get foodstamps cause I don’t make enough money to buy groceries for my children after all the horrible bills I have to pay. We don’t have wifi nor satellite so don’t try telling me that we need to cut down on stuff. I have a toddler and an infant. We barely get any foodstamps. There’s a lot of people out here that don’t need them but they receive them anyways. Foodstamps is foodstamps is should cover what it always has. People always saying their money should be spent the right way. But don’t you realize If our taxes didn’t go to the less fortunate then what would they go to? The government a trip somewhere, the president a trip somewhere? I mean look at it from a point of view if you didn’t have any money and you relied on foodstamps cause at one time I was where I didn’t have a job and had to rely on them.
Isn’t this a ” NO DUH “. Is beer,liquor , cigarettes on the no buy list ?? None
are good fer ya. Milk etc. just might be a better choice…..especially when someone
else is payin for it!
Food stamp recipients don’t need to be prohibited from buying junk food and sugary, teeth-rotting soda……just NOT on the taxpayer dime. What is so unfair about that? Just like cigarettes, alcohol, tattoos and gold teeth- they will find the money for it, if they want it that bad. Obviously, there remains many families who use their food assistance appropriately and budget their money wisely. But, for the ones who I SEE buying high-end, name-brand groceries, sushi, ribeyes, etc.- sorry, it doesn’t set well with me.
End Food Stamps and go back to handing out cheese, powdered milk, rice and beans.
barring the use of food stamps to buy, anything but the basics is wrong. Bread, milk, meat , potatoes, rice, ETC………..NO FAST FOODS EITHER
Aaron and Ralph just want to make a name for themselves in front of Congress, showing themselves saving a dime. While I can understand a limit on empty calories, these calories make all of us happy and all people need some enjoyment in life. Being punished for being poor makes people depressed and depression causes more illness than any soda ever has.
About time food stamps need to be treated like wic .
I’m tired of working 40+ hours a week .When I shop at grocery store I have to limit what I can afford no basket full of anything my family desires . Its full of what I can afford . To the grand locust maybe they should get a job and buy their case of Pepsi . My kids didn’t grow up with Pepsi they had to eat healthy because I couldn’t afford junk food and health problems . Because we also don’t get free medical we pay for insurance we can’t use because of high out of pocket cost so we also don’t get to run to doctor everytime we need too either . Think it’s about time welfare receivers start having to penny pinch like the rest of us .
The Bible, God’s word says that if a man doesn’t work then don’t t let the bum eat!!!!
Only seems fair, “If I have to spend my money to take care of you” I should definitely have some say in how it is spent!!! And what it is spent on!!! After all, it is MY MONEY!!!! and to go one step further, them young strong bucks on welfare should only receive bread and water!!!
@ Grand Locust
You want some CHIPS with that?
Ok..lets let the government control us some more…lets add chips and ice crem and baked goods…after all none of it is really healthy….
Yes, it is essential that the poor people in need of aid be made to feel less human by banning from families that which every American with resources takes for granted. It has nothing to do with health concerns. It has everything to do with humiliation and further degrading poor people in America. May those representatives have a wonderful Christmas as their families go out and buy a case of Pepsi, and may their concerns for the health of poor people be sincere, rather than the cynical truth…..some cannot stand the idea of a poor person drinking a pepsi………….priorities.