GOP renews push to limit 'junk food' purchases with food stamps

The Wisconsin State Journal reports:

Assembly Republicans want to limit government food aid used to buy junk food while acknowledging they will likely need to overcome opposition from powerful business groups and the federal government to do it.

Limiting the types of food that could be purchased with taxpayer-funded assistance is among several broad proposals to promote “self sufficiency” — including drug testing everyone receiving unemployment assistance and food stamps — that Assembly Republicans plan to pursue in the session that begins in January.

State Rep. Mark Born, R-Beaver Dam, said he knows the food industry and retailers were strongly opposed to a bill that failed to make it through the last legislative session.

And Born acknowledged that any changes likely would run afoul of longstanding U.S. Department of Agriculture rules

When you make a deal with the devil... you'll wind up at the end of the deal as the junior partner.