In an escalation of New York's war on obesity, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, with the backing of the state, has asked the federal government to bar the city's 1.7 million food-stamp recipients from using the coupons to buy sodas and other sugary drinks. Bloomberg has already tried to get people to eat healthier through ad campaigns, restrictions on food sold in schools, and an unsuccessful call for a state tax on soft drinks. Public health experts say cutting extra sugar is a good idea. But should the government force people to do it by saying "no food stamps for soda"? (Watch an AP report about the proposed soda ban)
No — this is nanny-state meddling to the extreme: "New York State thinks poor people are too stupid to decide their own diet," says Logan Penza at The Moderate Voice, and will inevitably make the "wrong" choices unless we "[don't] leave them any choice at all." Listen up, "nanny-state busybodies" — you don't have the right to tell people what to eat and drink just because the government is paying the bill.
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