Barron’s
Stocks in packaged-food companies have been under pressure in the past few days after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr., a well-known critic of Big Food’s influence on government, to lead the Department of Health and Human Services.
Among the actions laid out in his “Make America Healthy Again” plan, Kennedy said he would stop allowing beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to use food stamps to buy soda or processed foods that are widely considered by nutritionists to be unhealthy. More
A lot of SNAP recipients buy cases of soda and then sell it for 50 cents on the dollar, they won’t be happy.
Winning! Go Bobby!
This is all well and good but Biden has begun his attempt to ignite a nuclear war with Russia so all may be moot.
Jan 20 cannot get here fast enough.
“Stocks in packaged-food companies have been under pressure in the past few days after President-elect Donald Trump nominated Robert F. Kennedy Jr.,”
The drug companies, specifically Pfizer and Moderna, as well as all facets of the healthcare industry, have all gotten a haircut because of RFK Jr. and what it wants to do. The general consensus is,”There is a new sheriff in town, the gravy train ends now”.
In looking at the great selections Trump has made, I can’t help but wonder how dizzy-eyed they will be once they tear the engine apart. Between the border, the sorry state of our military, and all the out-of-control apparatchiks, both in the Pentagon and in the intelligence agencies, these guys should get hazard pay.
Oh, and Mr. President, please allow Rand Paul to audit the fed; he wants to do it, you want him to do it, and well want him to do it.
Makes sense to me.
How about we END ALL government welfare programs – for individuals AND for businesses and nations? Let the private voluntary charities hand out whatever they wish. Focus on the subsidies, etc. that are funding these horrible companies and their products.
I don’t know how many times I’ve stood in the line at the grocery store and watched as someone buys all the treats & goodies, except for alcohol, and then they whip out the EBT card.
Funny, they always seem to have the cash for the alcohol.
This will change lives.
And just like that, RFK Jr is a racist.
Those “packaged food companies” are going to have to come with ways to offer broccoli, carrots and other healthy “treats” in a format SNAP users will actually seek out.
I expect these innovations to be a benefit to us all. I know I’ll object a lot less to eating my vegetables if they were more palatable.
That or they’ll find ways to exempt various “bug” based products for SNAP recipients consume. Probably feed organic waste to some creepie crawls then claim their all natural so some HHS bureaucrat gladly signs off (probably after securing a place on their board or consulting gig).
Sack of beans, sack of peas, govt cheese and they can drink water. If they want meat, it’s under every rock I turn over. If you don’t like that meat, I’m seeing Help Wanted signs everywhere I look. The kids and I eat a lot of beans and rice, it’s good. There are a heck of a lot of ways it can be prepared. I make a kettle of soup every couple weeks and it’s never the same twice. It’s good, and it’s good for you.
I caught people in my alley once who had used their EBT cards at the nearby Walgreens to purchase 12 packs of soda which they were cracking open and pouring out to return the empties to obtain cash.
Beyond informing them that they were blithering idiots there was
little I could do as they weren’t breaking any laws other than making my alley a sticky mess.
Great that people will be eating healthier but…
How much Listeria and E-coli will be in the food considering the type of folks packaging the products
I pride myself in eating healthy, grow a garden, keep chickens, before I got too old to chase it, fished and hunted.
It totally chaps my ass to see the hippos and their three kids belly up to the bar on my tab.
I’ll spring for essentials, milk, cheese, eggs, rice, pasta, baloney, bread (would rather they baked their own like me), fresh veggies.
All that crap in a box or bag just pisses me off. Don’t care if you ruin your health, I just don’t want to pay for it.
Then I have to pay for the health bills too.
Push two buggies out full, load it up in an Escalade.
At one time blacks prided themselves on the make do to eat, now they eat higher on the hog than I can and I end up paying for it, twice.
Pendulums do swing, eh?
Ya’ll forgot monthly drug testing. That would cut the number of recipients as well.
Six states (the usual suspects) also have what the USDA calls their “Restaurant Meals Program” for qualified EBT users. I looked at what the qualifications are and they do make sense, except the very broad category for government workers who are on a permanent disability retirement. How many, I wonder, are on a permanent disability because of morbid obesity? That’s how Medicare (Medicaid) payed for all those “scooters”, remember that? Nearly 100% of people I see using those scooters are unable to walk because of their weight (and the cascade of preventable illnesses associated with it).
Benjamin Franklin famously stated the best way to help the poor was to make them uncomfortable in their poverty; to either lead them or drive them out of it. There are too many generations of Americans who see nothing wrong — and quite a bit good — in living off their fellow Americans.
When I was a young child, my dad was laid off for a time from his logging job with 8 mouths to feed. I remember what help the government gave us: a small food box, consisting of dried beans, generic powdered mild, generic cheddar cheese, rice and generic peanut butter. I think it was labeled with “USDA” on everything. Back then, the gov’t didn’t want you to “blend in” with the gainfully employed population as EBT users do today.
Abigail, I remember the Peanut Butter came in big shiny cans and upon opening it you had to stir it up to reincorporate the oils that had separated to the top.
My sister and I ate a lot of that stuff you mentioned.
Mom used to make a hot cocoa mix with the powdered milk by mixing bakers cocoa and sugar with it.
Abigail, I too remember the peanut butter & cheese for the brief time we were on it, USDA. Some states have stores that advertise (little EBT accepted stickers) on their Deli food. Now I wonder how many load up on spendy Deli food, then whine that they don’t food to make it end of month?? Waiting lines at the Food Bank
My brother-in-law owned a dairy farm. His milk was always bought by the government and turned into “gubmint” cheese. Then my sister would get it back in their monthly gubmint rations since their total income was below the poverty line.
AA,
I too remember those USDA groceries. My dad knew a lot of people that lived in the “projects”, and collected USDA groceries monthly. (IIRC, we didn’t qualify, dad “made too much”. HAH!)
He would ask them to get everything they were allowed, then whatever they didn’t want, to give it to him.
These people were glad to help, as my dad would provide transportation to and from, for those that didn’t have a car.
Yeah, we ate a lot of the cheese, powdered milk, macaroni, and I can’t remember what-all else. It helped stretch the budget back then.
And not a soda pop, candy bar or chips in sight!
This is a half effort at best. EBT cards are now a prepaid debit card. Recipients blow 90% of “their” money on fast food on the 1st and 15th as soon as they get it. Ever wonder why every business gets driven out of high crime low income areas but fast food places somehow get by? This is why.
My mom was director for a Head Start program when I was in my early teens.
She would often be given commodities that were left over.
We got the gubmint cheese and butter, and often left over cooked food from the lunch programs.
This was all stuff we didn’t buy regularly, because my parents couldn’t afford it.
Mom was ultimately let go from her position, in favor of an Hispanic man. Her white privilege didn’t work in the late 70’s.
If he can make it stick this will pay off huge in reduced medical coasts that WE pay for. I’m digging everything RFK is doing so far. And don’t forget, healthy body, healthy mind.
And then buy a carton of cigarettes after grifting their junk food off of us.
“We tried to relieve want; not to supply indolence.”
(Solon ~550 BC)
Used to be severe limitations on what you could buy with food stamps; aka the basics. Milk, select meats, bread, cheese, vegetables, etc. EBT cards are now accepted at McDonalds out here, ffs. 15 or so years ago, one of my daughter’s first jobs was as a check out at Publix. She would watch some buy lobster and steak and sell it in the parking lot, I presume to buy crack. This bullshit needs to stop. There should be a separate aisle in the grocery store and dedicated areas in the refrigerated and frozen sections. That’s all you can buy with EBT. If you are embarrassed or don’t like it, good. Get a job and do something with yourself.