Remember the uproar from Sarah Palin, the tea party, and many GOP members of Congress, when First Lady Michelle Obama had the gall to encourage Americans to eat healthier to combat the obesity crisis in this country? If not, here’s a quick refresher:
While making s’mores at one point during Sunday’s episode, the former Alaska governor proclaims the marshmallow and chocolate treat is “in honor of Michelle Obama, who said the other day we should not have dessert.”
It’s not the first time Palin has taken a jab at Mrs. Obama over her campaign to discourage fattening foods, especially from public schools. The former vice presidential nominee told conservative talk radio host Laura Ingraham last month that “the first lady cannot trust parents to make decisions for their own children, for their own families in what we should eat.”
Palin also hand-delivered cookies to a Pennsylvania school last month before delivering a speech there, saying: “Who should be deciding what I eat? Should it be government or should it be parents? It should be the parents.”
I bring up this old news because Florida Republicans seem to have taken Michele Obama’s ideas into the realm of actual government intrusion into the diets of its citizens:
Republicans in Florida are trying to prevent people on food stamps from buying items like candy, soda and chips with their state-funded assistance.
“You can’t feed a family on potato chips and Mountain Dew, which is the goal: feeding hungry people,” Florida State Sen. Ronda Storms (R), who introduced a bill to limit what food stamp recipients can buy, told TPM.
Storms said a number of grocery store cashiers told her that customers on food stamps would buy junk food, prime rib, lobster or other extravagant foods. This bill would introduce a little “fiscal responsibility” to the program, she said.
Storms’ bill would also bar other welfare funds — like the debit cards some welfare recipients receive as part of Temporary Assistance For Needy Families — from being used at ATMs in casinos and strip clubs and anywhere out of state, as the Associated Press reports. But her evidence is largely anecdotal. It’s very difficult, she said, to calculate how much state assistance money is spent on sweets and other items people would term junk foods.
Florida Rep. Mark Pafford (D) introduced an amendment to the House bill to make an exception if the funds were used to buy a cupcake or cake for a child’s birthday. It was rejected, but Pafford told TPM that all hope is not lost.
So let me get this straight – Republicans don’t like the First Lady making recommendations for nutrition to combat this country’s obesity crisis but they are ok with picking out what foods a person on food stamps can and cannot purchase? Which sounds more invasive to you?
Note as well the implication of this legislation – it’s that poor people are abusing the system, that they are incapable of eating healthy, that they are taking yours and my money to go buy candy. And where is the evidence of these serious allegations? Oh, it’s a few anecdotes from grocery store cashiers regarding people on food stamps coming in to buy sweets. Sarah Palin, I’m waiting for you to intervene and defend the rights of poor children to have an occasional sweet. Where are you?
Update: Having reread what I wrote above, I wanted to be sure to clarify one thing. Much of what I wrote above was focused on GOP hypocrisy not the actual legislation in question. It seems to me that when the government gives out money to people, it should have some discretion to determine how that money is used. What I object to above is the GOP’s assumption that these food stamps are being misused by the poor, when they have nothing but anecdotal evidence. I also object to a kind of blanket approach that rules out any sweets in any instances just because federal assistance is involved. Everybody deserves some sweets in their lives, and there is room for some candy/soda/dessert in most people’s diets as long as its in moderation.
