There's a new bill preventing food stamps from buying ""soft drinks, candy, ice cream, prepared desserts such as cakes, pies, cookies, or similar products."

It's expensive complex bureaucracy that doesn't add anything of value. Additionally "unhealthy" or "junk" have no standard definition while no properly ran grocery sells "bad food".

All that is being accomplished is greater stigmatizing abd punishment of food stamps recipients while making it harder to get food.

You can't clearly define "unhealthy food" so the government has to keep paying Coca Cola to kill our poorest citizens.

Ok. How many people should we deny for legitimate use to make sure that we stop all those bad folks from buying food you don't like? What even is the percentage of people buying shit like that over food they need to live?

It seems like more unnecessary over sight that will cost more time and effort for the grocers than money it saves.

For reference, 9% of food stamps are spent on soda alone.

Most of the discussion in that thread is reasonable, let's check out r/politics:

People don't like sin taxes when democrats are pushing them but big government is fine when it's coming from Republicans.

Not giving people free money to buy junk food = tax

when a Democratic administration wanted to reduce the amount of sugary drinks available in New York the Republicans shit themselves over libertarian concerns. This may surprise some people, but they're being hypocritical.

Because if something is legal, it should be given to everyone for free.

Maybe pass a law that makes sure healthy food is affordable?

Grocery prices too high?

that's probably why they're doing this. they want the poor to starve. they don't care about health lol they just fired people at the fda

Poor people will starve without soda and snack cakes!

Are these the same people who went ballistic when Michelle Obama suggested they eat healthier food and excercise more?

Yep. 💯

If you're unhealthy you want to pay for everybody to be unhealthy.

Highest rates of diabetes are in the South/red states…. You gonna tax their sweet tea too, Trump? Do it! Get them angry.

Redditors see this as a tax because they think food stamps are earned income.

Party of small government wants to dictate which foods people can buy. Cool.

Redditors, like Chris Chan, see food stamps as an everyday fact of life.

Just drove through Mississippi and one of the things we do is to count how many family/dollar trees we see before a seeing a real grocery store.

You can still buy cheese and pasta and milk and canned soup at those stores.

Why not just make healthier foods more affordable?

People would stop buying soda if only they could afford broccoli!