This page was last updated on March 9, 2011.
Let’s restrict SNAP to healthy foods; Oren M. Spiegler; Beaver County Times; March 9, 2011.
Mr. Spiegler is such a prolific letter writer the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review gave him a little tribute back in 2003. Google “Oren M. Spiegler” and you’ll get more hits than you know what to do with. Unfortunately, prolific is not a synonym for competent. Mr. Spiegler claims to be a Republican. In my critique of “Breathing more freely,” I cited reasons why I was “beginning to believe Mr. Spiegler is simply another Republican impersonator,” but he sealed the deal with “Greatest foreign policy debacle.” Subsequent letters have been more confirmation, including this one. The group of local Republican impersonators also includes Messrs. William A. Alexander, Arthur Brown, William G. Horter, Edward J. Hum, and George Reese, all claiming to be disgruntled Republicans.
Below is a detailed critique of the subject letter.
“I endorse and applaud First Lady Michelle Obama’s drive to get Americans to eat healthier food and to engage in regular aerobic exercise, a winning formula for longer and happier lives that would certainly place less of a burden on our strained and overused health care system.”
[RWC] Oh brother!
“I hope that she will endorse the same good habits for participants in the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, which was referred to as food stamps in the pre-political correctness era.
“It is ludicrous that my tax dollars and yours should enable individuals who utilize SNAP to purchase potato chips and soda to make themselves and their families obese and unhealthy.
“This is one area over which government has complete control, in which it can use the heft of its position as a benefactor to insist that public funds not be used for unwholesome purposes.”
[RWC] When he describes “government … as a benefactor,” Mr. Spiegler gives us more evidence he is a Republican impersonator. Anything the government gives it takes from someone else. I’d say we taxpayers are the “benefactor,” but being a benefactor is a voluntary act and paying taxes is compulsory.
“The administration should confine the use of food stamps to the purchase of fruit, vegetables, milk, juice, cheese, and meat. The government has a powerful interest in supporting policies that will make for a healthier citizenry.”
[RWC] I guess Mr. Spiegler doesn’t know you can eat so-called “healthy” food and still be obese or unhealthy. Fruits, for example, are loaded with natural sugars and consuming a lot of fruit juice means consuming a lot of calories. Other “healthy” foods contain various levels of cholesterol, fats, et cetera. In Mr. Spiegler’s world, the real obesity solution would be for the government to determine a family’s caloric needs for a week (or month, whatever) and then allow the family to buy only enough food to meet those needs.
Mr. Spiegler says “government has a powerful interest in supporting policies that will make for a healthier citizenry.” Why? Are we citizens incapable of taking care of ourselves? To which part of the Constitution is Mr. Spiegler referring?
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