While our attention may have been temporarily directed elsewhere, The Gohmert does not rest, and during a heartfelt speech on the floor of the House yesterday, Gohmert elaborated on why he is supportive of cuts to food stamps.
According to Louie Gohmert, the Republican fetish for kicking children off the SNAP rolls and taking away their free school lunches is justified because there are people out there buying gourmet crab with their food stamp cards. Also because there are obese people out there.
Gohmert: They talk about standing in line — I’ve heard this story so many times from people who are broken hearted about it, and sometimes get angry just thinking about what they’ve seen and what they’ve heard — but standing in line at a grocery store behind people with a food stamp card, and they looking in their basket as one individual said “I love crab legs. You know, the big King Crab legs. I love those. But we haven’t been able to have them in our house in who knows when.”
But I’m standing behind a guy who has those in his basket and I’m looking longingly like “when can I ever make enough again where our family can have something like that?” And then sees the food stamp card pulled out and provided. He looks at the King Crab legs and looks at his ground meat and realizes because he does pay income tax — he doesn’t get more back than he pays in — he is actually helping pay for the King Crab legs when he can’t pay for them himself. [...]
We don’t want anyone to go hungry. And from the amount of obesity in this country by people who we’re told do not have enough to eat, it does seem like we could have a debate about this issue without allegations about wanting to slap down or starve children.
We should cut $2 billion from the SNAP program because one of Louie Gohmert’s hopeless constituents claims he saw someone buy King Crab legs with food stamps.
I shouldn’t have to point out that this is not a thing that actually happens. You cannot buy King Crab legs with food stamps unless we’re talking about crab-flavored rice, beans, and peanut butter.
I can tell you from personal experience that financial insecurity plays a significant role in the quality of food one can purchase and thus maintain a healthy weight. And what one can buy with food stamps is hardly enough to feed you let alone make you obese.
I suspect that when Gohmert claimed his constituents have come forward with things they’ve seen and heard that made them angry, he was describing his own feelings. Or, alternatively, he was describing what the voices in his head have told him.