Viewpoint

SNAP is a larded, sugary mess

By Mike Nichols

The subject line of the email from the disabled North Woods doctor receiving some temporary government assistance read “Food Stamps,” which is actually a misnomer. 

The federal program we used to call “food stamps” is completely electronic now, and the name was officially changed to the “Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program” — or SNAP — in 2008 during reauthorization of the federal farm bill.  

SNAP is a misnomer too, though — as the North Woods doc found out.  

“Our family recently started receiving SNAP benefits,” wrote the doctor, whom I also talked to briefly on the phone. “I had read the information prior to applying about how SNAP helped families to get ‘healthy’ foods. What a joke. I assumed that I would be able to get fruits, vegetables, whole grains, dairy — actually healthy foods — similar to what is allowed on WIC,” the Special Supplemental Nutrition Program for Women, Infants and Children. 

“Sure, I can get those, but I can also get Monster, Diet Pepsi, Hershey's Miniatures, Doritos and Oreos.”

Letter to Lawmakers

Don’t snuff out wedding barns, Badger Institute and other groups tell Legislature

A wedding barn is nothing like a tavern — especially in ways that matter for liquor laws. The Badger Institute is happy to join an effort to fill in Wisconsin lawmakers on why. 

The institute is part of a coalition of free-market organizations — led by the Wisconsin Institute for Law & Liberty — writing to lawmakers to warn them that proposed changes to liquor laws will put the burgeoning wedding barn industry out of business.  

The venues host private events, such as wedding receptions, at which caterers hired by the renters serve food and drink brought in from elsewhere. The proposed bills would require the barns either to get a liquor license — often hard or impossible to obtain in rural jurisdictions — or to limit their business to an absurd six events a year, no more than one a month.  

As the letter puts it, wedding barns shouldn’t be regulated as if they were public taverns because “weddings are purely private events.

The Killing of Milwaukee’s Kids

Young kids in Milwaukee are being shot, and often killed, at an astonishing rate.

It used to be that the shooting of a child was big news. Now, it’s almost daily news — if news at all.

In 2022, 136 kids under 17 years old were shot in Milwaukee; 27 of whom died.

As recently as four years ago, child shootings were much less than half as prevalent.

Sadly, it appears Milwaukee has taken a permanent, tragic turn. There were 137 shootings of kids under 17 in 2021; 136 in 2022 and 61 through June 12 (the latest data available) thus far this year — the exact same pace as last year.

Source: Milwaukee Homicide Review Commission

While a surge in firearm homicides and non-fatal shootings is historically normative for the summer months of June, July and August, increased incidents of child victimization must always be a far cry from “normal.”

For Milwaukee officials looking to reverse course and stop gun violence toward kids, the city must support the police officers and detectives who take criminal justice and public safety seriously.

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Badger Events

Democracy, Freedom and a Massive Wake-up Call Regarding Communist China

Registration now open

Join us Tuesday, Oct. 3 as we welcome keynote speaker Mike Gallagher, U.S. representative for Wisconsin’s 8th congressional district and Chairman of The Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party.

Sponsorship opportunities are available, along with general registration and VIP meet-and-greet tickets.

Weekly Survey: Should wedding barns be required to obtain a liquor license in order to host private receptions?

Previous Poll Results:

What We’re Reading

• Tablet: The Culture of Transgression

• Cap Times: Wine at the brewery? A new bill could change Wisconsin's liquor laws

• City Journal: Birth of a Woke Myth

• Daily Caller: Milton Friedman’s Vision in Education Becomes Reality

• American Mind: Statism and the New Right

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