RFK Jr. Pushes to Ban Using Food Stamps to Buy Soda: ‘U.S. Taxpayers Should Not Pay for It’
Kennedy pointed out that while people can make their own decisions regarding what to buy and what not to buy, taxpayers in the United States “should not pay” for people on SNAP to purchase items like sugary sodas.
The comments from Kennedy were made as he and U.S. Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Marty Makary joined Secretary of Agriculture Brooke Rollins in celebrating the signing of six new SNAP state waivers, which would “amend the statutory definition of food for purchase and end the subsidization of popular types of junk food beginning in 2026,” according to an HHS press release. States signing the new SNAP waivers include West Virginia, Florida, Colorado, Louisiana, Oklahoma, and Texas.
Other states, such as Nebraska, Iowa, Indiana, Arkansas, Idaho, and Utah, have previously signed SNAP waivers.
“We are spending $405 million a day on SNAP, about ten percent is going to sugary drinks … if you add candies to that, it’s about 13 to 17 percent,” Kennedy said on Monday. “We all believe in free choice, we live in a democracy, people can make their own choice about what they’re going to buy and what they’re not going to buy.”
“If you want to buy a sugary soda — you ought to be able to do that — the U.S. taxpayer should not pay for it,” Kennedy added. “The U.S. taxpayer should not be paying to feed kids foods, the poorest kids in our country, the foods that are going to give them diabetes. And then my agency ends up — through Medicaid and Medicare — paying for those injuries. We’re going to put an end to that, and we’re doing it step by step, state by state.”
Most states already ban junk food from being eligible to pay for with food stamps. Maryland is one of them.
So why do I see welfare queens checking out with soda and chips and candy?
Who gives a damn, this needs to be at the federal level! I am tired of being broke so that other lazy uneducated reject losers can live on this earth while I suffer. F them! If it is ok for me to suffer, who pays for this damn crap, then why is it not ok for those who are uneducated and lazy get anything and everything they want, and then some!
Instead of letting these bums go to grocery stores or whatever have food banks where they can get milk, cheese. bread,eggs, canned goods bottle water etc. I am so sick of going to Sam’s club and seeing the Haitian bums loading the carts with family packs of rib eye and porterhouse steaks at 17 dollars a pound while the white working man eats peanut butter and jelly and 3 pounds of bananas for 2 bucks WTF!
An Ho-Hos and Twinkies and Ding Dongs, etc. No donuts, cookies, candy and the likes. Most of the recipients of food stamps are already overweight, then we have to pay their medical expenses.