Kerby Anderson

The incoming Trump administration seems dedicated to reducing the size of government. What about reducing the size of the American waistline? Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders sent a letter critical of the food stamp program to Trump’s nominees to head the departments of agriculture and health and human services.

When the food stamp program was launched, it was intended to address the issue of hunger in America. While it is still true that some pockets of hunger remain, the bigger problem is that Americans are, well, bigger.

The governor argues that the food stamp program is one reason for obesity in America. She lamented that “this Nutrition Assistance program is undermining the health of millions of Americans, on the taxpayers’ dime, by encouraging families to eat highly processed, unhealthy junk food.” The governor is asking for a waiver from the current federal guidelines.

Jack Butler, in a recent commentary, quotes Chris Edwards (Cato Institute) who documents that nearly a fourth of the food stamp benefits go to such items as sweetened beverages, salty snacks, sugars, and candy. Edwards argues that even though we keep hearing the word nutrition used for food stamps, much of the food consumed is not nutritious.

Butler also notes that Senator Marco Rubio last year sponsored a bill that would have required the Department of Agriculture to collect data on the health effects of the food stamp program to see if the program could be improved. Senator Rubio argued, “In the midst of America’s obesity crisis, taxpayer dollars shouldn’t be spent on junk food.”