Tag: Food Stamps

Fat Is As Fat Does

From the VOMITORIUM

The debate rages on and on…..many of the liberal elite see the worse problem in America is obesity….and their half hearted attempts to change the tide are amusing at best and flipping naive at worse….but now they have found a new champion…..Mayor Bloomberg of NYC…..

Sugar-sweetened beverages are “the largest single contributor to the obesity epidemic,” Governor David Paterson and Mayor Michael Bloomberg said in a joint statement in advance of a City Hall news briefing today. Obesity is almost twice as prevalent among the city’s poorest households compared to the wealthiest, they said.

The state’s office for disability assistance intends to ask the USDA to exclude the drinks from the list of items that can be purchased with food stamps, a welfare program that started in 1964, the statement said. The department oversees the benefit.

Obesity-related illness costs New York State residents almost $8 billion annually, or $770 for each household, according to city and state health officials. Overweight or obese adults comprise 57 percent of the city’s population, they said.

Almost half, or 46 percent, of the 22,300 people hospitalized for obesity-related diabetes each year live in low- income neighborhoods, the statement said.Almost 40 percent of New York City’s public school students in kindergarten through 8th grade are overweight or obese, including 46 percent of Hispanic students and 40 percent of black students, according to the statement. A child who consumes one sugary drink a day has a 60 percent higher risk of becoming obese than those who don’t.

All of this is well intended but look at the figures…Hispanics and Blacks are the heaviest and have the most problems and the answer to this is to all but tax them into submission….the groups mentioned are the families living in poverty….and the answer is to lessen the amount of sustenance that their benefits provide….find a solution to poverty and your obesity problems will also be solved….just a thought…..

This is a typical American response to a problem…..do NOTHING to solve the problem…and what is that problem?  ……you want to truly solve the problem then address the cause…..POVERTY!  All this type of reform does is give the idle rich a warm and fuzzy feeling that they are championing an issue……

It is easy to sit at your desk making plenty to give your family everything and have the spare time to go out an run to Albany….but real people do not have that luxury…penalizing poor people will NOT solve the problem…..only smooth the feathers ruffled by those who have NO idea……..the idea in NYC penalizes the poor, as I have said, they want to avoid taxing this stuff for it will effect those who can afford it….and that is NEVER the idea.

Here is an idea for those liberal airheads…..solve the problem and stop patting yourselves on the back for sticking it to the poor….so far all your well intended ideas are crap…..try again, but this time look at it from a real perspective, the perspective of making barely afford to live on and then have to feed a family,  if you can from the Hamptons…….

Republican Health Care

Or Watch What You Eat.

A Daily Agitation

Before I begin I want to inform those that are not political junkies such as myself…..Sotomayor will be confirmed…the CIA has been carrying out covert ops since its inception…..now you can give your mind a break from the cable catnip that is playing daily.

The health care issue is being hotly debated…both sides are trying desperately to be heard.  The Repubs have offered up their special plan for health care it is called ” The People’s Choice Act”,  in case you would like to check it out.

I read it and since I have plenty of time to comtemplate the stuff that was put into it…I would like to talk about the part that got my attention over most of the other stuff.  It is the part on food stamps and nutrition.  Paragraph 1 in this section reads:

(1) IN GENERAL- Not later than 6 months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Agriculture shall, based on scientific, peer-reviewed recommendations provided by a Commission that includes public health, medical, and nutrition experts and the Director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, develop lists of foods that do not meet science-based standards for proper nutrition and that may not be purchased under the food stamp program. Such list shall be updated on an annual basis to ensure the most current science-based recommendations are applied to the food stamp program.

Okay with that posted it sounds like the “Food police” will be looking into your eating habits.  According to this, unhealthy foods could be bought with food stamps…that will mean that since the healthy foods are more expensive that the poor’s food dollar will not go as far in feeding their family.  I have written posts stating that healthy foods should be made more attractive to the poor by making them less expensive than the unhealthy varieties.  But just making it illegal to buy certain foods will not make them healthier.  Just like making drugs illegal did not make their use go away.

One of my more avid readers, Sue, had a good point….let the ones making these outrageous acts, have to live on the same amount that the people getting food stamps would have to do…..then these millionaires might learn some humility, by learning that they are morons for even attempt such crap.

What Causes Obesity?

Gee…now there is a loaded question…..some say it is a gland problem…..most of the time it is….the mouth gland….others blame a variety of causes from fast food to laziness.  But what does really cause Americans to be obese?

There has been study after study on why people are fat.  State after state has tried to find a solution…..tried and failed…why is there no good way to reverse the trend toward a fatter America?  One answer is that most state legislatures and governors are looking for a quick fix.  That way they look good and it helps their re-election resume.

A recent study has found that Mississippi was the fattest state with 32.5% obese adults. Alabama, West Virginia, Tennessee and South Carolina rounded the top five. Colorado was least fat and the only state with fewer than 20% obese adults.  Of the top ten fattest states, 8 are in the South.  Is that a trend?

If one is looking for a connection in these stats try poverty.  If one checks the stats on poverty they will find that the most of the same states listed in the top ten obesity study are the same that are listed in the poorest states.  Ya think there is a connection?

How about education?  Does that play a part in the obesity debate?  Well, 5 of the fattest states are in the lowest 10 of the education scale.  So 50% of the fattest states are also the dumbest.  I would say that is a good indication.

What to do?…..what to do?

Poverty causes people to eat in an unhealthy way to stretch the family food budget.  Why?  Unhealthy foods are the cheaper.  My idea is that states should make healthier food more appealing to the poor.  If the food budget goes further with healthier food then the people will eat healthier.

For instance, food stamps…..make healthier foods more appealing by making them 50% less than say the fatty of foods.  Or if say, apples are 3 for a $1, then if bought with food stamps then 6 could be bought for that same $1.

The people must be educated on the effects of an unhealthy diet…at best now, in the South there is little taught they seem to be worried more about who is having sex and not what they are eating.  Improving the people’s knowledge and eating habits will NOT be a quick fix, it will take time and education, something most poor Southern states do not want to tackle, because it will take money and they have little thanks to the massive corporate give aways they offer business.  They do NOT have the money to help the citizens of the state.

Obesity is curable–but there is no will to do so.  The best my state has done is offer a bill to help people pay for stomach stapling–The problem with this idea is that it would fall under the state Medicaid program….unfortunately that program is damn near bankrupt, so why would nayone want to add more problems to a failing program?  An educational program and food stamp reform would be cheaper in the long run–but the politicians want a quick fix and unfortunately there is NO quick fix.

How About Making Healthier Easier?

The state of Mississippi tried to pass a bill that would ban restaurants from serving certain foods to overweight patrons.  It failed.  The government, both state and federal, has tried for years to get the poor to adopt a healthier diet.  They have failed.  All attempts to help low income families learn to eat healthier have failed, for the most part.

Why is this?  First of all, healthier foods are far more expensive than high fat low nutrition foods.  That is the main cause of the unhealthy diet–cheaper foods make the food budget go further.

I am sure that somewhere within the HHS catacombs there is a new plan to help the poor learn to eat healthier.  They will fail also.  With the incoming administration there will be an emphasis on health care and one of the canons will be preventive measures like a healthier diet.  And now we are back to where we began…it will fail.

I know somewhere someone is saying, “there has got to be an answer”.  Uh huh and there is.  It does not take a rocket scientist to figure it out.  The answer is in the food stamp program which many poor people are benefitting from.  Take the program and make it where if healthier foods are bought then they would be half priced or 2 of 1 type of thing.  This would not be that difficult because all stores are computerized and it would take an adjustment in the software to make it viable.

The government will want all of us to focus on the preventive side of the health care equation, but telling people about the benefits of eating healthier will not make it so.  There has got to be an incentive for such an approach

Without the incentive ALL attempts to make a healthier population will FAIL.  This is an easy approach and will have a high rate of success—but there is the problem…it is not complicated enough for government.

copyright:  CHUQ/Info Ink

Democrats Try To Help Main Street

After consulting with Barack Obama, Democratic leaders are likely to call Congress back to work after the election in hopes of passing legislation that would include extended jobless benefits, money for food stamps and possibly a tax rebate, officials said Saturday.

The bill’s total cost could reach $150 billion, these officials said.

The officials stressed that no final decisions have been made. They spoke on condition of anonymity, saying they did not want to pre-empt a formal announcement. House Democrats have announced plans for an economic forum on Monday “to help Congress develop an economic recovery plan that focuses on creating jobs and strengthening our economy.”

If they are successful, a lame-duck session of Congress two weeks later would allow them to start work on a response to the credit crunch that has sent stock prices plummeting and also threatens to trigger a deep recession. It often takes two or three months for a new Congress to begin turning out legislation, particularly when a new president is settling into the White House.

On the other hand, by attempting to pass legislation next month, Democrats would have to negotiate with President Bush, whose term runs until Jan. 20, 2009. Additionally, Senate Republicans, with 49 seats, could block any measure they opposed.