It’s a tough choice between Pepsi and Gatorade. I don’t know how to choose. Let’s have the government decide!
On ABC’s “The View,” Oct. 7, a segment addressed New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s proposal to ban the use of food stamps to purchase sugary drinks. Bloomberg suggested a two-year ban to examine whether the lack of soda impacts obesity in food stamp recipients.
The View approached the issue from the narrow vantage point of fighting childhood obesity versus discriminating against welfare recipients. Whoopi Goldberg argued, “Are we saying only poor folks are obese?”
Sherri Shepherd replied, “I feel that, with the food stamps, we're saying we're not going to contribute to this. We keep screaming somebody's got to do something about childhood obesity.”
Aside from food stamps, nobody on the show thought to question the legitimacy of government deciding which foods citizens should have. No one throughout the conversation raises the concern that more government control will limit individual freedom.
Not surprisingly, Goldberg dominates the conversation carrying her argument throughout that “Everybody gets the ban or nobody gets the ban.” Anything less than that, according to her, would be contributing to “a stigma.” Elisabeth Hasselbeck countered that, “If you're paying for it with your own dollar, they're [government] saying go ahead. Using my dollar, I'm going to tell you how to use it.”
Barbara Walters broke in, pointing out that,“What they are also trying to do is not just make it on food stamps. They're trying to get permission from the Department of Agriculture to ban this or to control this so that it would affect everybody,” she said, approvingly.
Goldberg responded, “It would be nice.”
Both Walters and Goldberg praised Bloomberg for his ongoing attempts to push government into the private lives of New York’s citizens.
“And it was Mayor Bloomberg who stopped cigarettes,” Walters said. Everybody was, oh, the most terrible thing, so one has to give him credit for trying.”
“I love our mayor. I love our mayor,” Goldberg agreed.
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