Peterson: Congress should 'look at' banning caloric pop from food stamp purchases

www.minnpost.com ^ | 05/14/10 | Derek Wallbank

[TornadoAlley3]

WASHINGTON — Rep. Collin Peterson on Thursday suggested Congress consider banning caloric soft drinks from being purchased with food stamps as a way to address obesity.

According to multiple reports, Peterson said the proposed ban is "clearly is something we need to look at," though he added that he neither supports nor opposes the suggestion at this point.

Peterson's comments followed a House Agriculture Committee meeting, in which a panelist suggested the embargo. The hearing was one of many Peterson is holding as an early preview of the 2012 Farm Bill, which includes the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program.

The exact suggestion Peterson was responding to, as reported by Reuters' Charles Abbott:

Wellesley College professor and food expert Rob Paarlberg suggested the ban during a hearing to review the 2008 farm law, which includes food stamps as well as crop subsidies. Food stamps help low-income people buy food. One in eight Americans receives food stamps.

The anti-hunger program accounts for 40 percent of Agriculture Department spending and outweighs crop subsidy and land stewardship spending of $10 billion this year.

"I would argue caloric soda should be made ineligible for purchase under SNAP, like tobacco and alcohol," said Paarlberg, using the new name for food stamps, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. He later said sugary sodas are "a huge part of the obesity problem."

[ilovesarah2012]

Are you aware what the unemployment rate is? It is nearly impossible to find a job in some areas. People who want to control what others eat scare me.

[Shimmer1]

Some people have worked their whole lives, many have sucked at the gov’t teat for generations. Neither you nor I know what percentage of which.
And yes, as a matter of fact, if they’re on the receiving end of my (and others’) largesse, we DO get to decide what they get for free. They are certainly allowed to eat whatever they wish, if they pay for it.

[Sudetenland]

Doesn’t matter, if you take government money (tax-payer money) then you surrender your right to self determination.

[ilovesarah2012]

Yet the bankers, etc. who received taxpayer money can have parties and retreats and eat caviar and drink champagne and that’s okay. It’s just the “poor” you seek to control. Doesn’t seem fair. How many people do you know who receive food stamps?

[Sudetenland]

Your entire comment is irrelevant. The banks have paid back the TARP money. And yes what they did is wrong, but does that mean we ignore any further wrong? Do two wrongs make a right?

Bailing the banks out was wrong, but, of course, when the entire banking industry is in the Democrat Party column, as is "Wall Street," they are going to get away with doing wrong.

[irishjuggler]

If so many of these food-stamp ("SNAP") recipients are obese, perhaps that's an indication they no longer need to receive government aid as they're not in any imminent danger of starving, eh?

Of course, the food stamp ("SNAP") program isn't really about preventing malnutrition, is it? It's about subsidizing high food prices as a reward to the farmers/food producers that own Congress.