If you needed another piece of evidence that Republicans just
hate poor people and want them to be miserable, here you go. From Missouri:
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.
Seafood and steak don't contain nutrition? No, it's just that Brattin sees them as luxury foods, so he doesn't think Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients deserve them. As Jeanine Grant Lister
writes:
If the bill becomes law, a Missourian can’t buy a can of tuna with an EBT card. Tortilla chips to go with salsa? Nope. Flank steak — tough, stringy and the only cut of beef I can afford — is off-limits, too. Who are these people, and what makes them think that what we eat is their business? And given that the average food stamp allotment in my state in 2013 came out to just $1.41 per person per meal, I wonder if they understand that recipients couldn’t buy lobster if they wanted to.
It seems like the bill's sponsor may be removed enough from cheap eating to have forgotten a few details like
canned tuna:
Brattin admits that the language might need some tweaking. "My intention wasn't to get rid of canned tuna and fish sticks," he said.
Didn't really think it through, did you? Just went into a hating-the-poor frenzy and said "BAN IT ALL" and then wrote it into a bill. Brattin continues to insist his cause is a righteous one, though:
"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."
Dude, as a state legislator, you, too, are on the taxpayer's dime. But where do these people shop who are always claiming to see people buying filet mignon on EBT cards? I can only remember one time even noticing a person using an EBT card, and that was because she had to check her balance. Is there some grocery store in Missouri where everyone who ever wanted to blow their entire monthly SNAP allotment on steak and crab go, and that happens to be where Brattin shops? Or is he just making shit up? Also, back to that entire monthly SNAP allotment thing. It's not like there's some filet mignon and crab leg exception, and if you buy those things, you get infinite SNAP dollars. No, whatever foods people choose to buy, they are buying them with a budget of around $6.50 per person per day, maximum. Maximum. And if someone wants to go hungry one day so they can eat a damn steak on their birthday, what the hell business of Rick Brattin's is that?
Oh, I forgot. We're talking about a Republican legislator. He thinks everything in our private lives is his business. I guess we should be grateful he's not trying to pass a law requiring food stamp recipients to get transvaginal ultrasounds just because.
