Lay off my Coke! In the latest polling from Public Opinion Strategies, a majority of Americans, including Trump voters, support the usage of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP, commonly referred to as food stamps) for soft drinks, including those sweetened with sugar. Changing this policy has been a focal point not just for Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., but also for another Trump appointee, Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
Granted, Secretary Rubio doesn't appear to be super focused on the issue as of now in his role in the State Department, it is one of RFK Jr.'s priorities. In September, RFK Jr wrote this in an op-ed for the Wall Street Journal.
"Stop allowing beneficiaries of the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program to use their food stamps to buy soda or processed foods. Nine percent of all SNAP funding goes to sweetened drinks, according to 2011 data," Kennedy wrote. "It's nonsensical for U.S. taxpayers to spend tens of billions of dollars subsidizing junk that harms the health of low-income Americans."
Moreover, in May of 2023, while he was still a senator, Rubio introduced a bill, the Healthy SNAP Act, to eliminate junk food from food stamps and “make diet quality a primary objective of the SNAP program,” as 20% of the program’s purchases are junk food and unhealthy beverages, according to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA).
Not only did Rubio believe that cutting sweets from food stamps would be more conscious of taxpayers in the short term, but it would also “in the long run, reduce medical expenses.”
However, despite a majority of Americans voting for President Donald Trump, it appears the citizens of the United States do not want "Big Brother" deciding how to spend their tax dollars.
An argument can be made for the idea that the taxpayers are funding unhealthy habits and stress on the healthcare system, as RFK Jr. and Rubio have pointed out.
But, not a single majority of any demographic from the polling suggests that Americans have a problem with their tax dollars going toward the less fortunate to buy sweets. The overall polling showed nearly 2 to 1 support for this notion.
At the same time, the United States is a representative republic, and the American people voted to put RFK Jr and Rubio in charge. If every issue was left up to the American people, then it would not, in fact, be a republic, but a pure democracy. However, if RFK Jr. wants to win on this issue in the court of public opinion, then polling suggests that the HHS will have some work to do in the communication sphere.
It doesn't appear that this issue will be set in stone any time soon.
