Missouri Lawmakers Don't Want Food Stamp Recipients To Buy Steak

Rick Brattin a Republican lawmaker in Missouri...does not want people who get food stamps to be able to eat, steak, lobster, cookies, sodas. He says and I quote "that people are abusing the system by purchasing luxury foods, and believes that that must be stopped, even if it ends up requiring the inclusion of other less luxurious items."

So...poor people according to him should not be able to enjoy a cookie or some seafood etc.

Link to article: www.washingtonpost.com...

What are your opinions on this ATS?

I personally feel that people on Food Stamps should still have the freedom to buy what they want to buy.

This indeed sounds like yet another boot stamp to the face for the downtrodden and poor.

Thanks bureaucrats and shareholders and other scum! You get to eat while no one else is allowed.

I would think that if you are on food stamps and NOT abusing them, you'd want to stretch them as far as you could. In order to stretch them as far as possible, I would think one would forego buying things like lobster and expensive cuts of meat. I know I would.

The thing is, even when I go to the grocery store to buy ingredients to cook a healthy meal -- it ends up costing more than to buy junk food. So the question then becomes, do I want bulk to keep my stomach full, or spend twice the money on fresh ingredients that I have to cook myself?

They specifically want the poor to suffer. If the poor aren't suffering, what's the point of being rich? These are spiteful, horrible people who derive their self worth from having it better than somebody else.

a reply to: caladonea

While I do feel that people who are receiving food stamps and buy things such as lobster are abusing the system what he is proposing is simply totalitarian government micromanaging.

The system in place now is far from perfect and I think there are better solutions I just haven't heard them yet.

i've said it about the Red Cross, about welfare, and about food stamps: once you give it, you have no right to how it is used. It isn't yours anymore.

Besides...i would hardly call steak a "luxury food". Center cut eye of chuck...a very tender and flavorful steak...costs about $2.50 per serving. Not much of a luxury item....

Tri tip, sirloin/sirloin petite, round, chuck, flank, and skirt are all fairly inexpensive cuts of steak that in no way are luxury.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

I agree with you. Here is a quote from the Washington Post article which I think is very telling about Rick Brattin....

"I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards," he said. "When I can't afford it on my pay, I don't want people on the taxpayer's dime to afford those kinds of foods either."

He says he can't buy those foods himself on his pay...so he does not want poor people to be able to buy them.

I was sitting here thinking...what if someone on food stamps does buy an expensive cut of beef or some lobster...maybe they are trying to celebrate a special event...like someones birthday or graduation etc.

a reply to: caladonea

Lets see,they get mad if they buy a bunch of junk food.They get mad if they buy good solid food.They seem to get mad if they buy anything. I guess they just want them to starve,and if they aren't,then they get mad about it. It will eventually come down to well since they can't really buy anything with the food stamps,we'll just go ahead and cut them out all together,they won't miss them now.

But I would rather have my tax dollars go to a kid that gets a meal at least,even if it is steak,than to have them go hungry. How can we in a country that has so much,let these children go to bed hungry? If its the parents fault for having them,then take them away.But good luck in finding where to put them. The thing is, a lot of these parents had decent paying jobs until the '08 crash,now they are just barely keeping their heads above water. They didn't ask the government to bail these crooks out,they didn't ask the government to loosen the laws for wall street. Yet they have paid for it with their first born ever since.

For those that did find other work,the jobs don't pay as much,don't have the benefits,and they have to work longer hours just so they can bring enough home to pay some bills. But yeah,lets make them starve so their humiliation will be complete. They should remember,that it is red states that have the most people on government subsidies.

a reply to: caladonea

I had some friends that were on stamps that every weekend would invite me and other over for steak and sea food. Lots of crab legs.

They were nice folks, but they were definitely gaming the system and admitted it.

Why not just offer a bread, rice, and beans line?(sarcasm)

Once again the poor are being blamed.

Why not focus on getting these people good paying jobs instead?

a reply to: proob4

I just sit here wondering...why do too many politicians always go after the poor...I think some of them must really hate the poor.

a reply to: MystikMushroom

I have some friends that are on food stamps...and they are working...but they can't earn enough to put food on the table for the whole month...they need to pay their rent and phone bill...etc. They don't splurge and live very frugally...yet those Missouri lawmakers want to rule over what they buy at the grocery store.

originally posted by: links234
They specifically want the poor to suffer. If the poor aren't suffering, what's the point of being rich? These are spiteful, horrible people who derive their self worth from having it better than somebody else.

Unfortunately...I do think some of them are as you say.

Now I want steak and lobster

a reply to: Grimpachi

I understand what you are saying...but what if they only buy the lobster very rarely...and it is for a special occassion...aren't poor people allowed to celebrate?

As someone who grew up in and out of homeless shelters and wondering where his next meal would come from, let me explain what being on food stamps for someone in that scenario is like for the benefit of those who haven't been there or haven't tried to imagine what it feels like.

This is speaking of people who are actually IN this scenario, mind you. So I hope no one responds with the frequently used trope, "No, these people have cell phones and live fat off their benefits, and are simply lazy." I'm talking about people who actually NEED these programs to survive. Please limit responses and thought processes accordingly.

Even with food stamps, even shopping at the cheapest locations available to you, you're often hungry. You are limited as to where you can shop for food to begin with, as you have no car. You often have to choose between electricity, rent (because you can't ever hope to afford a mortgage or a home of your own,) toilet paper, soap, and food. You rarely buy clothes, even at thrift shops and the like, because as long as you have some scraps to cover your nakedness, that's a luxury you can't afford.

Even with food stamps, sometimes emergencies or other scenarios make you run low on money for food, so you eat at soup kitchens. There you may actually get some of the best nutrition you've had in a while, and it feels absolutely heavenly. Actual meat and potatoes and gravy are you kidding me? The relief is enormous.

There is no cable TV. Some rabbit ears if you're lucky. There are no cell phones. There is no internet. There are no mp3 players, CD players, tape decks, stereos, or other musical apparatuses. Your life is a day to day survival. You're depressed. You feel hopeless. You feel like this is a situation you will never get out of. There are few escapes. Some books from the library perhaps. If you're a child, perhaps a local rec center of YMCA. If you also have chronic health issues that preclude that, well... you basically sit or lay and stare at the wall or a snowy TV signal.

You are mentally beaten down, hopeless, nihilistic, and often traumatized, especially if like many of our nation's poor, you live in a terrible, violent, drug addict riddled neighborhood. Because that's where society sends you if you're an "undesirable," such as someone without enough money to be "presentable" or have "good credit."

So, when through some combination of luck, happenstance, and effort you end up with a little more breathing room than you ordinarily would, do you horde your every last foodstamp or cent? Hell no. You're not that rational. You're broken down with grief and hopelessness and sometimes even malnutrition. So no. You buy a steak, or some macaroni and cheese, or maybe a small frozen pizza. Because this might be the only time in months or a year you'll have the opportunity to do so, and it's the only relief or escape you've had in months. Maybe you take in a cheap matinee, or buy your child the cheapest example of an action figure they've asked for for years that you've never been able to provide them with Christmas after Christmas.

That's what being poor in America is actually like. If anyone has a problem with it... experience it first. If you haven't experienced it, no one cares about your condemnations or judgments. They're too busy trying to survive and, just as importantly, stay remotely sane and desperately search for some small modicum of happiness.

Thankfully, I am no longer in that situation. I am truly blessed. We are still "poor," but not truly poor as we were when I was younger. But I will never forget what it was like. And I will NEVER judge those in the same situation or worse for their coping mechanisms. Because you just don't know unless you've lived it. And I doubt most "lawmakers" have lived it. Just saying.

Peace.

a reply to: bigfatfurrytexan

You make some very good points...I just think more and more there are some that want the poor to be under their thumbs at all times.

a reply to: Dimithae

That is just it...they being some of TPTB...seem to get mad at poor people all too often.

a reply to: caladonea

Nobody ever said people on food stamps can't have steak and lobster.

Just pay for it with your own money, not with food stamps.

Also, I understand wanting to "splurge" for a special occasion. However, the reality is if you can't afford to feed yourself, then you can't afford to splurge.

Food stamps are to provide basic food necessities, steak and lobster should be as forbidden as liquor and cigarettes.

You can have all the steak, crab legs, and lobster you want, as long as you pay for it.

Also, people who work and pay taxes have every right to be upset when someone living of their hard earned money gets to enjoy luxuries that they can not.

a reply to: AceWombat04

Very well put...and needed to be told. Thank you for your excellent contribution to this thread...you spoke from experience and your heart.