The Atlantic: on Welfare & Poverty

Eric Brakey: Disallow using food stamps to purchase junk food

The proposal had come from Eric Brakey, a libertarian state senator from Maine and a member of the 112-person panel tasked with drafting the official Republican Party platform this week. "I would like to put in language specifying that when Republicans are in control of the federal government, we will allow states to put restrictions in place so that SNAP benefits"--better known as food stamps--"cannot be used to purchase junk food," Brakey said from his seat on the dais, five tiers of bunting-clad tables in a cavernous convention-center basement. In Maine, Brakey explained, the Republican governor had sought such a restriction but been denied by the Obama administration.