American Spectator – Nannies Take On Food Stamps
SACRAMENTO — Let’s start with the obvious. The best way to ensure that Americans have enough money to pay for their groceries is to create a booming economy, keep a tight lid on inflation, and empower Americans to take care of their own families. Instead, the economy is faltering, and prices of everything — including basic food items — are ratcheting out of control. The Bureau of Labor Statistics reports that food prices are up 17 percent over the past two years.
During tough economic times, the federal government generally fills in the gap with welfare programs. Starting this month, the 42 million Americans who receive payments from the Supplemental Assistance Nutrition Program (SNAP) — formerly known as food stamps — received a 12.5 percent increase in their benefits. Such payments — as well as the number of recipients — have soared during COVID, just as they soared during the 2008 recession.
There are many critiques one could make about this program. It’s bureaucratic and costly. Like all assistance programs, it promotes government dependence. Food assistance might better be provided at the state level. Nevertheless, as programs go, providing needy people with food assistance is less objectionable, perhaps, than most of the other expenditures from the feds. Congress isn’t about to cut the program or even reform it in a meaningful way.
Instead, some members of Congress are embracing a symbolic “reform” that amounts to little more than pestering program recipients — and the stores that serve them — with some Nanny State regulations. Take, for instance, a House bill known as the “Healthy SNAP Act,” which would limit SNAP dollars from being used for a laundry list of sugary drinks, snack items, and desserts.
“Why should our taxpayer dollars be allowed to be spent on junk foods that provide no nutritional value and contribute to America’s obesity epidemic?” asked bill author Josh Brecheen (R-Okla.). “This is a commonsense reform that will protect taxpayer dollars, improve diet quality, and in the long run will reduce medical costs.”