A recent report by the Centers for Disease Control detailed a survey taken between 2011-’12. The study found that “no significant difference was seen by poverty status in the average daily percentage of calories consumed from fast food among children and adolescents aged 2 to 19.”
As a matter of fact, the poorest children surveyed took in the least amount of fast food calories in their daily diets, with just 11.5 percent. The daily caloric intake from fast food was actually slightly higher among the wealthier children at 13 percent.
It’s been a long standing conservative myth that poor children have terrible diets compared to children from middle and upper working class families.
The study did also states that American children across the social spectrum are eating too much fast food, with “34.3 percent of all children and adolescents aged 2 to 19 consum[ing] fast food on a given day.”
This report shatters just one of many conservative myths about the poor. For many years conservatives have engaged in “poor shaming” as a way of vilifying the working poor, many of whom vote Democrat.
Tucker Carlson, the conservative parasite who Jon Stewart once destroyed on CNN, took time out of his busy schedule to spew vile lies against the working poor on his website.
Carlson railed against EBT (Electronic Benefit Transfer) Cards being used to buy fast food. He states,
“Taco Bell is one of many fast food restaurants that accept EBT cards. Guacamole is extra? Who cares? It’s on the taxpayer.”
Fox’s Boston affiliate posted an article on its website titled “Should Welfare Recipients be Blocked from Buying Fast Food?” They start the articles with their traditional Fox style fear mongering stating,
“Massachusetts State welfare recipients have spent a whopping $44,000 worth of Big Macs, Happy Meals and Chicken McNuggets last year in a debit card spending spree.”
These idiotic notions about the poor might be more humorous if they didn’t influence political policies.
Sen. Kelly Townsend (R-AZ) submitted a bill earlier this year designed to prohibit the use of EBT cars at fast food restaurants.
Maine Governor Paul LePage (R), is trying to push legislation that would keep EBT card users from buying “unhealthy” foods.
In Wisconsin, state Rep. Robert Brooks(R) has put forward a bill that would keep EBT card users from buying “crab, lobster or other shellfish.” None of these items qualifies as “junk food.”
Missouri State Rep. Rick Brattin, put forward a bill that would prohibit EBT card users from buying “Luxury Items” like steaks and seafood. His fellow republicans are also trying to prohibit items like cookies, energy drinks, chips, and soft drinks. Brattin says,
“I have seen people purchasing filet mignons and crab legs with their EBT cards,”
“When I can’t afford it on my pay, I don’t want people on the taxpayer’s dime to afford those kinds of foods either.”
Okay Mr. Brattin, I’m going to have to call shenanigans on that one. I don’t believe for one second you were standing in line at the grocery store and saw someone with an EBT card loading up on steaks and seafood. My guess is that Brattin heard the story from a constituent and decided to insert himself into the story; A story which had been a long standing conservative urban myth for generations, by the way.
It’s kind of interesting how public servants who “supposedly” receive their pay from tax payers; choose not to practice more restraint when spending tax payer’s money on their expensive meals. But yet these same hypocrites want to criticize a low income worker for buying a steak burrito with their EBT card?
It’s time that Americans started standing up for the politically bullied poor working class in this country. Here is a video of Paul Ryan embodying how conservatives really feel about poor people.
