Law to Prevent Food Stamps Being Used for “Luxury Items”

 

New York State is proving, once again, why it would suck to live there.

 

A bill has now come up, proposed by state Senator Patty Ritchie that is intended to prevent those on food stamp assistance programs using those food stamps to purchase “Luxury foods” such as steak, lobster, cake, and so on.

 

While this may seem great on the surface to those that are against public assistance or social welfare programs, there are a few things that are wrong with this idea.

 

The first issue with this is, if someone is on food stamps and using them to bu y those luxury foods, they will have little to no money to get through the rest of the month VERY quickly.

This sort of negates the purpose of them and, by and large, those that are on food stamps would never waste them in this manner.  Not all, of course, but the vast majority of recipients use them to supplement their food stores through the month and most of it is gone rapidly, anyhow.

If you have ever been on them, you know what I mean.  They give approximately $1.47 for each meal, per person, if you are lucky to receive THAT much.

The second issue with this idea is, who or what is responsible for ensuring that those monies are used on what they want them used on?

What I mean is, there would have to be some sort of oversight on the spenders to prove what they are, or are not, buying with their assistance.  More government in our lives, and unnecessarily at that.

The last thing the public needs is yet MORE government intrusion in our lives and MORE demands from them on what we can, or cannot, do.  There is already more than enough of that, and what we do have needs to go the wayside, anyhow.  Do we really need to add more?

These are just a few of the plethora of problems that come to mind with a bill like this.

 

And, frankly, I do not see such a bill as this passing muster, anyhow.  It’s just political pandering on the part of this politician, seeking out the right-wing voters that are against social welfare programs.

 

You can hear Joe and Ira discussing these issues on the 02-25-16 episode of Brothers at Arms

 

http://mashable.com/2016/02/21/bill-food-stamps-lobster-steak/#NrYvDCzMiOqc

 

A New York state senator proposed a bill on Wednesday that would prevent people from using food stamps to buy “luxury” food such as steak and lobster, arguing that government assistance should be spent only on “essentials.”

Republican State Sen. Patty Ritchie also wants to prevent people from using food stamps to buy non-nutritional food such as cake.

“The goal of this legislation is to improve dietary quality and reduce obesity,” the proposed bill states. “This measure will also restrict the abuse of the program.”