Food Stamps Are Oppressive Big Government

By ROBINSON DORION
Guest Writer

I am writing in response to the Feb. 10 article entitled, Time to Rethink Food Stamps.  While I agree that the United States Nutrition Assistance (Food Stamps) program is flawed, the solution is not centrally planned fine-tuning.  That is not a principle upon which this country was founded.

The article states, “Because the money is coming from the government, the recipients should be held responsible for how the money is spent.”

My question to this is, where does the government get the money?

Government funds are either taxed from the people or borrowed, and the borrowed funds are repaid through the taxation of the people.

Therefore, it’s not the government’s money.  It’s the people’s money.

The Food Stamps program unconstitutionally redistributes wealth.  The reality is that our economy, and too much government in general, is plaguing society.

You may be asking, if redistribution programs like food stamps were abolished, how would people eat?  The realization has to be made that there is a finite amount of resources available to any economy.  Any capital the government taxes or borrows is capital that the private sector is deprived of.

Increased government spending or borrowing limits the private sector’s ability to expand production, create jobs and ultimately raise our standard of living.

Furthermore, government intervention also manifests itself in farm subsidies that diminish the supply of agricultural commodities and inevitably raise the price of healthy, natural foods.

Therefore, government intervention destroys jobs in the private sector and raises the prices on healthier, natural agricultural commodities.

When you think of all the problems in this country, between the unemployment, rising food prices, exorbitant private debt, etc. and their effects on the psychology of Americans, it is no wonder people are buying unhealthy foods.

Americans are depressed for a few reasons: they have no jobs, they can’t afford food, they’re going deeper into debt, and they continue to be disappointed by unfulfilled campaign trail promises.  This depression is a direct result of government oppression.  Removing the burden of government will create jobs and lower the cost of food.

She ends the piece saying, “After all, America is about giving a hand up, not a hand out.”  I would argue that America is about neither.  The epitome of America is freedom.

Freedom is really ownership of our bodies.  Freedom means owning what we produce.  Freedom means deciding for ourselves what we put into our own bodies.

Our government was constructed to protect these fundamental freedoms.  As those freedoms have been diminished over time from the most fundamental of standpoints, we have come to be dependent on government.

It is never easy to identify something you’re dependent on as something that is oppressing you, but that is what we, as Americans, will have to do to win back our freedom and ultimately, our prosperity.