Republicans on the Kansas State House’s Welfare Reform Committee had no good answer last week when Dem Representative Jarred Ousley proposed an amendment to their bill eliminating soda and candy from items eligible for SNAP benefits, with Ousley arguing that legislators should also be prohibited from using their $178 per diem to buy the same – as well as booze, cigarettes, and hot meals, which are already prohibited from SNAP purchases, the Kansas Reflector reports.
“Some legislators flashed amused smiles as they thumbed through the printed pages of Ousley’s amendment. Others had puzzled frowns,” the Reflector wrote after Ousley raised the amendment with the old “what’s good for the goose is good for the gander,” during the committee markup.
“We’re looking at apples and oranges here, a little bit,” Republican Carrie Barth said. “You know, we’re looking at public assistance versus legislative pay. We’re looking at W2 benefit employee pay versus a SNAP public assistance program. Completely opposite things,” she continued, not completely wrong in the procedural sense since it’d probably be a matter for a different committee, but still. “Taxpayer dollars are taxpayer dollars,” said Wichita Dem Ford Carr to that point.
After the discussion the GOP majority voted Ousley’s amendment down and advanced the bill.