Colorado’s governor has signed on to a controversial component of President Donald Trump’s dubiously named “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, becoming the country’s first Democratic governor to secure federal approval to ban food assistance recipients from using their benefits to buy soda and other sugary drinks. The ban is set to begin in 2026.
The Republican Party — that is, the party that once demonized then-first lady Michelle Obama for discouraging the consumption of sugary drinks — has now led a movement targeting Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program recipients who buy them.
Several GOP-led states have asked for — and received — Agriculture Department waivers allowing them to restrict SNAP recipients from purchasing certain foods and beverages. And Colorado Gov. Jared Polis announced Monday that he’s joining them.
In a news release, the Democrat called the federal approval to restrict soda and sugary drink consumption “a big step towards improving the health of Coloradans, and reducing obesity rates, diabetes, and tooth decay.”
Polis’ statement essentially echoed one made by conspiratorial Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., whose nomination to lead the Department of Health and Human Services was supported by Polis. According to the news release, Colorado has pending requests for federal approval to expand SNAP recipients’ ability to purchase food products from farmers markets and hot prepared foods from grocery stores. A recent NPR report shone light on how SNAP recipients are concerned about how they’ll feed themselves or their families as they face the potential of fewer benefits and fewer purchasing options. And while it may be easy for some people — of various political persuasions — to brush aside the troubling paternalism in all of this and assume that cutting off some Americans’ access to certain foods is good policy, experts have sown doubt about the idea for years. For example, when public policy expert Diane Whitmore Schanzenbach testified to Congress in 2017 about SNAP restrictions on soda and sugary drinks, she provided data to back up her view that such a ban would be “difficult to structure in practice, will be inefficiently targeted, and in many cases — such as a proposed ban of the purchase of soft drinks or sweetened beverages — will be unlikely to change consumption patterns.”
Ja’han Jones is an MS NOW opinion blogger. He previously wrote The ReidOut Blog.
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