I thought Republicans hated "big government" that sticks its nose into your private affairs?
Ah, when it comes to the poors they're perfectly willing to throw all that out the window, because they hate the poor more than they love any sort of "principles":
Low-income Wisconsin families won’t be able to buy shellfish with food stamps, and will have a much harder time getting basics like dried beans, pasta sauce, and cooking spices into their kitchens, under the latest state-level Republican proposal to tighten the government’s grip on the poor.
A bill proposed by state Rep. Robert Brooks (R) would ban stores from accepting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) cards for lobster, shrimp, and any other form of shellfish, and set a long list of additional rules for the first two-thirds of a recipient’s monthly spending....
[The bill] mandates that at least two-thirds of a recipients food stamps be spent on designated categories of food, and leaves the last third unrestricted....
The law would restrict access to a whole range of commonplace ingredients. Some of the things that would be harder to buy for poor families who cook include “herbs, spices, or seasonings,” all nuts, red and yellow potatoes, smoothies, spaghetti sauce, “soups, salsas, ketchup,” sauerkraut, pickles, dried beans sold in bulk, and white or albacore tuna. (Cans of “light tuna” are allowed under the rules.)...
To demonstrate the perils of food policing at Thursday’s hearing, a Democrat on the committee held up a plate of four different kinds of cheese. Although they are nutritionally indistinguishable, three of the four cheeses would be prohibited. “When you look at something like this cheese plate, there’s no evidence of sharp cheddar fraud."
No potatoes, no spices, no fish, no dried beans? It's not as if they'll be able to afford much in the way of fresh fruits and vegetables on $200 a month. So what are people supposed to eat? Dry bread and water? Gruel?
It's really amazing how the right wingers have managed to spin an entire nationwide initiative to police the eating habits of the poor off this one goof, the lobster-eating surfer dude:
I guess the black welfare queen driving her Cadillac has outlived its usefulness, particularly now that people are willing to call out Republicans for their race baiting, and it was time to move on to a new stereotype.
He may be a goof, but he's right when he says, "Do I have to apologize for how the system is set up?.... I'm getting help when I need it."