Apparently there will be no fishes and loaves for Missouri’s poor. Lawmakers have decided to tinker and chisel away at what food stamp recipients can and cannot purchase with their SNAP cards. According to Washingtonpost.com:
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 it’s 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.”
Currently, a household of one can qualify for up to $194 dollars a month, or fewer than $7 dollars day, as part of SNAP, according to the Department of Agriculture. For a household of two, it’s roughly twice that. For a household of three, it’s about three times the amount.
Why do people lie like that? What does Brattin do, follow people around in the grocery store, stalking them until they get to the check out just to see how they are going to pay for their food purchase? What if that card the shopper whips out is a Visa and not a SNAP card?
Perhaps the USDA might be headed in the right direction to ban non-nutritional foods like chips and sodas from the national shopping list. There is some argument that foods that provide no nutritional value to one’s diet should not be part of a food stamp program. On the other hand, banning fish and steak is ridiculous. Has Brattin checked out what is called “steak” in stores? Some fish is definitely “poor man’s food.” So is some steak.
If one is to read through the lines, it almost sounds like food has to be pretty unpalatable to be acceptable fare on a SNAP card to suit the likes of people like Legislator Brattin. $194 a month is not going to stretch but so far. Divide $194 by 30 or 31 days and you won’t even get $7 worth of food per day. How many of us can eat 3 squares on 7 bucks a day? Those are some pretty low-end meals.
When are some Republicans going to get over the notion that being poor is a sin? Why do they continue to harp on the idea that someone might be getting some joy out of life while being poor?
My stepson died a little less than 2 years ago because he didn’t have a SNAP card. His had expired. He was ill at the time and didn’t have the capacity to reinstate his SNAP card. He couldn’t work through the system. He died of starvation. I didn’t realize that could happen to people in America. I was assured by the medical examiner in NYC that it happened all the time.
I think about Chris every time I read an article like this one. Had we known his whereabouts, we could have bought him as much food as he needed. Not everyone lives a normal life, however, where family and friends can help them. Not everyone wants to eat lobster. Maybe they just want a haddock filet or a cube steak which is tough as shoe leather. Maybe they would settle with a can of cheap sardines.
As a nation we need to stop acting like poverty is some sort of character flaw. Not everyone is able to hit the ground running every morning. Chris was an extreme case. He had been a missing person for years. He was mentally ill and he had been lost in the system of a huge city. There are plenty of economically disadvantaged people out there of all ages who need a little assistance just having something to eat each day. It’s time to stop treating those people like they are bilking the system. Very few people are able to joy-ride through poverty.
Fox News and the GOP are Kings of anecdotal evidence. Before anyone jumps on this bandwagon, I would suggest that data that is verifiable relating to what folks on Government food programs really get should be closely evaluated. If these folks are receiving nutritional support from the government and they are choosing to buy protein (in any form), vegetables (in any form), fruit (in any form), grains (in any form), dairy (yada yada yada), etc., then I won’t challenge their individual choices. If they are buying smokes, honey buns, beer, cotton candy, etc., then I might criticize.
Fox and the GOP are resurrecting the “Welfare Queen” boogeyman just in time for the next campaigns.
I would remove items that have no nutritional value from purchasable items with SNAP. One exception would be condiments. I doubt if mustard has any nutritional value but it sure makes some things taste better. People already cannot buy non-food items like dish soap and toilet paper.
I think if we start getting too picky then items like vinegar and lettuce get nixed.
The GOP’s progressive idea from 20 years ago was the EIC (and Democrats embraced it, too). The EIC says that poor people are better off getting money and the ability to manager their own budget than to have nanny government condescend to tell poor people what food to buy, what house to live in, and what clothes to wear.
What happened to the GOP who believes in individual freedom and a smaller less intrusive government? I guess poor people don’t vote or at least don’t vote for Republicans and the target audience for votes is energized by class warfare.
What keeps someone who can buy mustard and ketchup but needs toilet paper from using SNAP to get the condiments and trading them on the street for tp?
I support restricting SNAP from paying for alcohol, cigarettes, and lotto tickets but otherwise I think we need to treat poor people with some respect and let them buy what food they want and can afford. Keep the SNAP program simple and not try to social engineer poor people’s diets.
If we think there is unhealthy food in the supermarket then we legislatively remove that unhealthy food for all people, not just poor people. Oh wait, Bloomburg tried that with large sugary sodas, nevermind.
I expect it is traded on the street. People do what they have to do to. I also know that poor people share what little they have with those less fortunately. I sent the lady who had helped my stepson a check. She never cashed it. It was for $50 bucks. I don’t know if I insulted her or not. that certainly was not my intention. I wanted to help her out.
If poor people want to eat a lobster, they should have at it. They just can’t buy many for $194 a month.
@Ed Myers
Hear, hear.
Cut out every single welfare benefit and eliminate the departments and positions which oversee them. Then replace it with a guaranteed minimum income. Cut those who qualify a check once a year and be done with it.
Would that begin to address the problem?
1 single mother with a guaranteed minimum income might have a hard time feeding 5 kids.
aah, where is the spirit of Jack Kemp to speak of social justice and human dignity in the language of the GOP?
The GOP needs to so some soul-searching to remain a viable party. They have a chance to win the White House (Hillary is not such a sure thing as many Democrats think) and hold both the House and Senate in 2016. Otherwise, we face a dismal future of Democratic big government, a perpetual slow-growth economy and no improvement in middle-class wages or jobs.
Most people in the United States, if questioned in a non-partisan way, support small government and the right to earn a living and keep the fruits of your own labor – Republican ideas. However, most don’t support abandoning disadvantaged people. There are as many stories like Moon’s stepson as there are surfer bums buying lobster. The key is to fix the system rather than discard it. Most voters would allow the surfer bum to have his lobster if that’s what it takes to prevent Moon’s stepson from dying. Also, most Gen-Xers and Millenials like the idea of freedom to pursue their own careers and earn income free of government interference, but they support LGBT rights strongly also. This, and many other conflicts, must be resolved in GOP thinking to attract those new voters.
By the way, cube steak can be very good. Coat it in seasoned flour and brown it in canola or some other healthy oil. Simmer it for an hour or so in a cheap broth made with bouillon cubes to make it tender. Serve with rice or potato flakes and frozen vegetables. That’s what poor people need to do with their aid. No expensive filet minion, but there are plenty of ways to make an inexpensive, nourishing, tasty meal. Virginian Cooperative Extension offers education in such things. Oops, that’s on the chopping block here.
Welcome Rubicon. Thanks for the recipe. I think you have left out the idea that many poor people simply don’t have time for elaborate meal preparation. Many of the working poor do receive SNAP cards.
I think the biggest problem out there is that most of the middle class doesn’t really understand who we are talking about. It isn’t R or D.
Thanks Moon. Glad to be here. There are some really interesting discussions. I guess it’s apparent from my post that I am a Republican, but not in the sense of some who make Reagan and Kemp look like commies. That cube steak recipe is not very elaborate. It’s fairly simple. I think people need to learn to do more for themselves, including both those who earn enough for a good living and those who need some help. In the case of the former, one of their big problems is a fast food diet and not spending enough time with their families. That leads to obesity, other forms of poor health, and disconnected families. I’m sad to see Virginia Coop losing its local funding. Learning how to cook simply with good, inexpensive ingredients is one of the best things all families can do. The TV shows mostly don’t teach that.
Surfer dude and my stepson were both outliers and hardly represent the norm.
Why are lawmakers even trying to legislate based on non-routine cases?
@Moon-howler
Because surfer dude and your stepson make for better headlines and political sound bites. The best solution is to reform SNAP to eliminate chips, soda, alcohol and other unhealthy choices. Plus, I think, education in health and nutrition. Those seeking subsidized mortgages are required to complete a course at Virginia Coop. That’s part of what got me thinking about this. SNAP participants should get some education in proper nutrition and healthy food preparation. Someone sitting in a nutrition class I suppose is not as interesting to reporters and politicians as surfer dude or your stepson. However, nutrition education and a properly functioning SNAP program might be able to eliminate both outlying situations.
I think what contributed to Chris’s death was that he was mentally ill and didn’t have the capacity to renew his snap card. The social workers never came back to check on him. I think he could have eaten ok on $194 a month IF he had the renewal.
Maybe there should be no restrictions. I haven’t made up my mind on that yet. I also think you should be able to buy dish soap and toilet paper.
this is just too funny.
When Bloomberg wanted to reduce the cup size of soda served in restaurants, he was ridiculed (contrary to Sarah Palin, it would not restrict access to the Big Gulp). But here, with this legislation – what burden are they trying to put on a store owner – define steak? Do they mean beef? Cannot buy a rib eye steak, but can buy a prime rib? Cannot buy a filet mignon, but can buy a tenderloin? Are there those that abuse EBT – sure, the same as there are those that abuse the financial system (like the Hustle at Countrywide).
Eating healthy costs money – it is cheaper to eat unhealthy food. I do not know why one can buy a pizza at 7-11 and a 2 liter soda on ebt. Talk about unhealthy.
I have a solution!
If they are good enough for the troops…. they are good enough for all.
MRE’s for EBT.
😉
I like the idea of having prepackaged complete meals with balanced nutrition available free to anyone who is hungry.
CEOs who receive bailout money should be subject to the same restrictions. They should Kso be drug tested
While I agree that lobster and filet mignon are definite overkill for EBT, the amount given to families needs updated. I personally know a family of 3 who lived off of 147$ on EBT and that was their monthly allotted food budget as the money both mother and father went majorly towards bills, gas to get to work, TP to wipe butts, etc. So many people gripe about those on EBT, but not everyone is out buying porterhouses. I know the mother I mentioned, yes, bought cake mix. Ya know why? So her son could have a birthday cake.
Welcome, SJ. I agree with you. I don’t understand this desire on the part of some people to demean the poor. Most people are just trying to get by on very little.
Thank you for your comments. I hope you will return.