http://wgme.com/news/local/gov-lepage-threatens-to-end-food-stamp-program-in-maine

AUGUSTA (BDN) -- Gov. Paul LePage has written to U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to say that if the USDA won't allow Maine to restrict food stamps from being used to purchase sugary foods and drinks, he'll do it anyway or withdraw from the food stamp program altogether.

LePage spokeswoman Adrienne Bennett discussed the letter Tuesday during a radio appearance on WVOM. LePage's office has not responded to a request for a copy of the June 17 letter from LePage by the time of this writing.

"It's time for the federal government to wake up and smell the energy drinks," wrote LePage, according to a reading of the letter on the radio. "Doubtful that it will, I will be pursuing options to implement reforms unilaterally or cease Maine's administration of the food stamp program altogether."

According to Bennett, the state asked the federal government for a waiver so it could create a pilot program that wouldn't allow food stamps, which are paid for by the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, to be used for the purchase of "junk food." That waiver request was denied, she said.

"We have a responsibility; these are taxpayer dollars," said Bennett. "We need to ensure that the most healthy foods are being purchased with food stamps."

The LePage administration requested permission to ban junk food purchases with food stamps in November 2015. That was after the Maine Legislature rejected LePage proposals to take that step in 2013 and 2015. Approximately 200,000 Mainers receive food stamps, down from a high of more than 250,000 in 2012.

Bennett argued that the federal government sends mixed messages when it comes to nutrition and the use of food stamps. On one hand, the Obama administration has long called for healthier public school menus and the USDA has offered grants aimed at improving the purchase of fruits and vegetables. On the other hand, federal rules don't allow states to restrict what is purchased with food stamps.

Bennett acknowledged that LePage's threat to end Maine's administration of the program is an extreme position.

"The governor understands what he needs to do to get the federal government's attention and he is drawing attention to this issue," she said. "It's important for the folks who are using the benefits to make good choices. He's asking for a compromise and we think it's a reasonable compromise."

To date, no state has been allowed to restrict the purchase of junk food with food stamps.

We've got our own mini trump here  

I'm all for the junk food ban. We're a poor state as it is and if this helps our state out gtg

Cut it off and the forests of Maine will burn for a generation.

never going to happen...  the processed food lobby is too powerful.

It either happens now, or later. It's inevitable.

End all welfare for having bastard kids.

Good!

We should end food stamps and welfare altogether and if people can't survive they can just lay down and die.  Eventually maybe people will stop breeding out of control and having families that they can't afford. Maybe then families will stick together a bit more like Asian/Hispanic families and take care of their own. Who's idea was it again to create an entire subculture of sitting on your ass and relying on the government to live?  Human's are literally the only animals aside from domesticated animals who live in captivity that have the luxury of sitting around and being coddled.  People who are worthless and give nothing to society should be given nothing by society.


[/edit] I'm ok with people who are mentally or physically handicapped and old people being given assistance. Able bodied people should not get anything however.

I always know I am behind somebody with the foodstamps(EBT CARD) at the grocery store. They buy the worst of the worst junk food and almost nothing else.

Not only that, but they buy at levels that would be hard for normal working families to justify.

Philly taxes it as evil, but the Feds think it is ok for the taxpayers to foot the bill for FSA.

Food stamps are equally about corporate welfare as they are about individual welfare.

Maine will jump to the cutting edge of survival if it shitcans food stamps. Do all that you can to encourage this action.

Maine has always reminded me of some kinda split personality between New Brunswick South and Massachusetts North.

Just pay the damn tolls on the way through, that's all I ask.  

Plus that is how the Dems buy votes they won't stand for it.

Flour, rice, beans and dried milk.  Want something better, get a fucking job.

Damn straight.

 

Amen.

Instead it's chips and purple drink. We pay to fatten them the fuck up, then pay ten fold for their heart disease and diabetes medical costs.

This.
Gov LePage was on welfare at one time. He wanted a better life so he got out there and earned it. He has zero sympathy for lazy fucks. There is no excuse for not being able to work right now if you're physically able. Everyone I know that owns a business is struggling to find help.

As the gov'nah, he sure has stirred up some shit the last few years
Probably the most controversial politician this state has ever seen. Half the state loves him and he makes the other half's heads explode

And... he likes guns, so there's that...

Actually it might be a genius move.  Cut the program out and watch the welfare rolls bail to another more profitable state.  

Reminds me of the 80's when southern states has bill boards advertising how to sign up for NY welfare.

Cutting off the food stamps just might help ME cut some of the deadwood.   Too much deadwood and you get forest fire dangers.

ahh the fraud of headlines... all he said withdraw state admistration of the program and dump it back on the feds

Giant FSA exodus to Massachusetts in 3...2...1...

This x 1000......General Mills, Frit-O-Lay, Kelloggs, Sara Lee, Red Bull, etc have mega-lobbys to keep the govt teat on "wide open"

Just for reference:
Went to the grocery store today....lady in front of me had her initial paperwork for WIC and vouchers (apparently too early to receive the card yet)  .....she had 80% of the right items--> 10 lb bag of potatoes, diapers, packaged corn on the cob (could have gotten more corn with the individual stalk corn or canned corn), milk, .......but then came the frozen dinners and the  (6) six-packs of the 16.9 oz Mountain Dews.

She had to pay an extra $1.92.

20% of the population of Maine is on food stamps.....

I grew up on boxed milk

Just want to point out , ebt , food stamps, snap whatever will not end in Maine. That's not what this is about.

The governor is just saying the administration of it would be taken over by the Feds and the state would stop running it.

This.

This guy gets it.

The reason we have "food stamps" now is because the grocery lobby wanted their cut, lobbied Congress under the guise of easier access for the poor, and has had a stranglehold on it ever since the first pilot program in the early 60s.

Hell, all the "dollar" stores you see popping-up all over the place would go away over-night were it not for EBT as it's a huge part of their profits.

Most peeps don't remember that it was the likes of the Salvation Army and local churches that used to be responsible for handing-out the USDA staples.