Storms' food fight

Editorial

It is curious Hillsborough Sen. Ronda Storms is being attacked for wanting to ensure poor citizens are well fed.

Storms would prevent food stamps from being used for junk food, a reasonable prohibition that would ensure the program actually provides nutritious meals.

Yet opponents see the restriction as demeaning.

Rep. Gwyndolen Clarke-Reed of Pompano Beach huffs, "What I choose to ingest, even though I may be on food stamps, that's my discretion. I don't need government telling me what I can and cannot purchase."

The issue is not government intrusion but government efficiency. Let's not forget that food stamps are intended to make sure the poor are adequately fed. They're not called snack stamps.

Wasting tax dollars on cookies and candy bars undermines the program and threatens the health of participants. Yes, it will be hard to draw a sharp line between junk food and approved food, and there may be some enforcement issues. But that's no reason not to set reasonable limits on the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, commonly called food stamps, though stamps are no longer used.

Storms' plan would not prohibit poor people from buying junk food. They still could buy whatever they wanted — just not with public funds aimed at providing sustenance, not snacks. The legislation also would attempt to prevent recipients from using government-assistance debit cards at casinos, liquor stores, strip clubs and out-of-state locations such as Las Vegas and the Bahamas.

The usual liberal suspects are characterizing all this as an attack on the poor.

No doubt Storms knows that such revisions would have to be approved by Washington, which so far has refused to sanction similar proposals. A tough stance on food stamps surely is good politics in Storms' conservative district.

Yet Storms is not suggesting the poor don't need help. She acknowledges most food stamps recipients spend appropriately.

She simply wants safeguards against waste and abuse. Requiring the funds be devoted solely to nourishing the poor should generate confidence in, and support for, the effort. What's wrong with that?

The proposal also would initiate an education campaign on nutrition aimed at the poor.

This is hardly humiliating. Parental pride comes from properly feeding the family, not from filling the kids with candy and chips.