General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsMO lawmakers introduce bill to prevent food stamp recipients from buying fish
They say if you give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. But teach the man to fish, and you will feed him for a lifetime.
Some Missouri lawmakers have seemingly taken the old saying and distilled it down to its most reductive lesson: Don't give fish to poor people.
Indeed, there does seems to be something a bit twisted in Republican Representative Rick Brattin's House Bill 813, which would bar Missouri's roughly 930,000 food-stamp recipients from using their government payouts to buy seafood. The bill would also ban energy drinks, soda, cookies, chips and steak.
Brattin's bill follows in the footsteps of several recent laws designed to restrict how needy Missourians use their federal assistance. In 2011 the legislature passed a law that required drug testing applicants who were applying for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families program. Two years later lawmakers banned the use of electronic benefit cards to withdraw welfare funds from casino and strip-club ATMs.
http://blogs.riverfronttimes.com/dailyrft/2015/03/missouri_lawmakers_think_welfare_recipients_waste_money_on_fish_steak_and_porn.php
delrem
(9,688 posts)Corrected it for you.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)that there are some good Democrats and a few Moderate Republicans in the Missouri Legislature. Painting with too broad a brush helps no one. I think every state legislature has it's share of "interesting" bills introduced that will never see the light of committee debate. Chances are this is just another one of those attention seeking bill introductions.
delrem
(9,688 posts)so the intent re. who was meant by "MO lawmakers" was clear as could be.
Sherman A1
(38,958 posts)all too well.
delrem
(9,688 posts)Laurian
(2,593 posts)positive instead of punitive measures. It's like they just look for ways to be hateful. Makes my blood boil.....
HereSince1628
(36,063 posts)deny people, just like considerate tender loving parents trying to tend to wayward incompetent children.
Because you know...
It's what Jesus would do!
Taking fish and bread away from the haves to feed a crowd of have-nots isn't a parable. It's a parody. Intended to illustrate the futility of charity.
jberryhill
(62,444 posts)MADem
(135,425 posts)jberryhill
(62,444 posts)Are they banning loaves too?
delrem
(9,688 posts)Jesus was eating the same thing as the crowd listening to his lessons.
These guys just see ready-made victims, ones who they can score points off of by kicking them when they're down, to ensure that they stay down, so the crowd applauding their lesson can feel satisfied that their superiority has been defended and upholded and celebrated. Their meanness gets them votes, from their crowd.
MADem
(135,425 posts)This guy is some kinda crazy--those are "traditional" kid meals, and he's being an ass.
And even if the steak goes on sale and is less than the burger, they can't buy the steak, because....huh?
When is this guy planning on giving the poor their fishing lessons, I wonder? I think people should show up at his office with fishing poles and ask for help with casting and so forth!!! Why aren't these idiots taking this approach:
"What I find is, first of all, food stamps run out by the third week of the month," says Rank. "A lot of people I met are extremely frugal in terms of using their food stamps and making decent decisions for what foods to buy or not."
"What I find," he adds, "is for the most part, people are trying to get by."
Downwinder
(12,869 posts)that recipients don't make money from food stamps? Grocery stores and the food industry make money from food stamps. Ever cut in food stamps is a cut in corporate and farm sales
n2doc
(47,953 posts)newfie11
(8,159 posts)KingCharlemagne
(7,908 posts)of SNAP assistance (if not the primary beneficiary), is children. Why is this bastard punishing children by restricting their access to one of the more relatively healthy forms of protein and essential nutrients?
Tommy_Carcetti
(43,199 posts)When did seafood become "the Mercedes of food?"