If you can’t afford your own food and the governments (aka hardworking taxpayers) have to pay for it for you, then there needs to be a limit of what you can buy. You should be able to go to the store and buy 4 bags of chips and 2- 12 pack of cokes as a meal every day for the month. That isn’t going to sustain your family. People are abusing the system to be able to buy more food than hard working taxpayers, and looks like Tennessee has had enough. Find out what they are doing to limit what you can buy on a state funded program. Bravo!

VIA| Many have long argued that when someone subsists courtesy of the generosity of the state (think welfare and food stamps, for instance), then that individual should be gracious enough to at least spend the state’s money wisely.

One of those who has argued this was Tennessee Rep. Sheila Butt, who on Thursday finally acted on this belief by filing a monumental bill that would ban food stamp recipients from spending taxpayer funds on unhealthy food items.

“A recipient of public assistance benefits shall not knowingly use an electronic benefits transfer card to purchase food items that are high in calories, sugar and fat without any nutritional value, including, but not limited to, soda, ice cream, candy, cookies and cake, as recommended by the United States Department of Agriculture,” the Republican’s bill reads.

Some have countered that passing this bill would be both an affront to the poor and equivalent to telling the less fortunate that only the rich deserve to eat sweets and drink soda.

In a statement published to her website, however, Butt refuted this accusation.

“At the end of the day, if you’re on public assistance, you shouldn’t be using taxpayer dollars to consume junk food that leads to additional health problems and more taxpayer assistance to address those problems,” she wrote.

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