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Florida GOP To Food Stamp Recipients: No Sweets For You
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...
