Who's having the last laugh now! Marco has a great idea below, and Trump is a disgraced idiot who...err...will be the next Repub nominee for President.
I can't take it anymore. Producing the Spriztler Report is too depressing. I need a shot of Wild Turkey.
No More Subsidies for Junk Food
My bill would exclude soda and prepared desserts from SNAP.
By Marco Rubio
May 7, 2023 4:27 pm ET
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is a lifeline for tens of millions of low-income Americans who rely on it for food. But like most government programs, SNAP is in dire need of reform.
Though SNAP is meant to supplement nutrition, more than 20% of all program spending goes to unhealthy food and drink. Taxpayers are projected to spend $240 billion on junk food, with more than $60 billion going exclusively to soda, over the next decade. Equally important are the health consequences for those relying on the program.
This subsidization of junk food is fueling American health crises. More than 40% of U.S. adults are obese, and roughly half have diabetes or prediabetes. These diseases can be debilitating. They are also extremely expensive, costing hundreds of billions of dollars in medical costs each year. That SNAP plays a role in their spread is immoral, irresponsible and reprehensible.
Thankfully, this isn’t a partisan issue. In 2013 progressive mayors advocated a federal pilot program to test approaches “limiting SNAP’s subsidization of products, such as sugar-sweetened beverages, that are contributing to obesity.” In 2018 agriculture secretaries from the Clinton, Bush, and Obama administrations warned that “ignoring nutrition is, quite literally, killing a thousand Americans every day.”
“Diet-related disease is the leading cause of death in the United States,” they wrote. “And of course, these diseases come with a hefty price tag, putting tremendous pressure on an already overburdened health care system.”
The former secretaries’ pleas went unanswered in 2018, but Congress has an opportunity to get it right as we work on the next farm bill. One of the former secretaries who urged action on nutrition, Tom Vilsack, is back for a second tour of duty at the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
I look forward to working with Mr. Vilsack and my colleagues in Congress to align SNAP benefits with the long-accepted standards of America’s other major nutrition programs: the National School Lunch Program and the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. My coming bill would explicitly exclude soda and prepared desserts from SNAP, reorienting the program toward healthy food—protein, produce, oatmeal, etc.—and beverages like milk and pure fruit juice.
Such common-sense reform would promote healthier diets at no additional cost and, in the long run, reduce medical expenses. It would also begin to address food deserts in low-income neighborhoods. If soft drinks and sweets are no longer SNAP-eligible, corner stores and supermarkets will have more incentive to stock healthier foods.
As with everything in Washington, this proposal has opponents. But there is nothing compassionate or responsible about spending taxpayer dollars on empty calories that contribute to health crises.
If Democrats won’t take my word for it, they should take that of their own administration. “The House and Senate,” Mr. Vilsack wrote in 2018, “should officially make diet quality a core SNAP objective, like fiscal integrity and food insecurity are now.” Well said, Mr. Secretary. Let’s do just that.
Mr. Rubio, a Republican, is a U.S. senator from Florida.
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