Arkansas Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders (yes, I know, I keep forgetting someone elected her to something too) is back on the national stage. She’s already made a name for herself in her home state of Arkansas, following in her father’s footsteps as governor.

Of course, the name she’s made for herself hasn’t been great. She’s been embroiled in multiple scandals, the biggest of which all involved wasting taxpayer money.

Perhaps as penitence for her own sins, she’s suddenly become very concerned with where federal tax money goes. She wants to make sure that poor people aren’t getting any more than they deserve. If that seems like a harsh thing to say or even think, just remember who we’re talking about here. Of all the faces to come and go from the first Trump administration, her lying smokey eyes stand out as among the most evil.

Sanders sent a letter Wednesday morning to incoming HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and the US Department of Agriculture demanding reforms to the federal Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or SNAP. Back when you were a kid, that was called food stamps, and the program provides essential help to those who need it most.

Reforms on what can be purchased with SNAP money have, of course, evolved over the years. In its latest incarnation, SNAP allows the purchase of:

• Fruits and vegetables
• Meat, poultry, and fish
• Dairy products
• Breads and cereals
• Other foods such as snack foods and non-alcoholic beverages
• Seeds and plants, which produce food for the household to eat.

As you can see, people can’t use SNAP money for beer, cigarettes, lottery tickets, fast food, or even hot prepared food from the grocery store. It is literally fresh meat, fresh fruit, seeds, and anything with one of those “Nutrition Information” labels on it listing recommended daily allowances, caloric content, and the like.

In the letter, Sanders states that she wants to see the federal government “prohibit the sale of junk food in SNAP and end taxpayer-funded junk food.”

That all sounds well and good, doesn’t it? Making sure that kids eat healthy and we’re not subsidizing obesity and diabetes, right? In fact, that’s exactly the way that Sarah painted it in the video she tweeted Wednesday:

President @realDonaldTrump, @BrookeLRollins, and @RobertKennedyJr are committed to Making America Healthy Again.

Mr. President: It’s time to end taxpayer-funded junk food in food stamps. pic.twitter.com/nIlQjLHugl

— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) December 11, 2024

But it’s that last line that keeps getting me. She calls it “taxpayer-funded junk food.” That’s enough to trigger the anger of any right-winger, mad that they’re paying for Doritos for some lazy so-and-so and their kids. And that’s her point when she frames it that way. There is no difference between this letter and the nosy b*tch at the grocery store who looks in the shopping basket of anyone paying with food stamps, loudly judging them and asking “should you be buying that?”

I have a couple of takes on this.

Number one, I was on food stamps as a kid. I stood in line at the park near our house for government cheese and rice and butter. There is a stigma attached to being dependent on assistance, and it is almost never the case — with food stamps at least — that people who use these benefits are abusing them.

But conservatives like to decide who “deserves” things. When they see a homeless person with a Starbucks cup, their little brains explode. God forbid a homeless person pull out a cell phone.

Economically disadvantaged people do whatever is in their means for short-term solutions. Whether it’s hunger or shelter or communication, the poor will always opt for the cheapest things. In the grocery store, that often means less healthy options than the quality fresh foods that Sarah pretends like they can afford with a meager SNAP budget. If you have a big family, you’ll buy as much as you can with what little you have and try to make it last. That means you buy processed foods.

But when Sarah talks about sugary drinks and desserts, what she really means is that poor people should not be afforded “luxuries,” even if that luxury comes in the form of a Twinkie or a can of Pepsi. And there’s no way to line-item things on this scale, so it’s not like kids could have diet soda or sugar-free desserts. They have to ban sales based on ingredients, and that will take away things that aren’t even snacks, but rather simple foods often used by families trying to eat cheaply.

Will they still be able to but Hamburger Helper? Not if the new rules Sarah proposes uses sodium content as a guideline.

She literally just doesn’t want them to have anything that’s considered enjoyable beyond what she thinks is acceptable. That’s been the conservative mindset forever.

If Democrats suggested anything like limiting what the Pentagon can buy, Republicans would scream government overreach.

Even one of Sarah’s own fans on social media responded to her post with dismay:

No, you lost me on this. If this isn’t government overreach, I don’t know what is. They either qualify or they don’t. I’m not ok with taking away treats/snacks for kids.

— JustMe (@JustMe11347) December 11, 2024

Nearly all people on SNAP benefits are working. The program is already stigmatized. Many children grow up never knowing what an artichoke or an avocado tastes like, not because they’re not paid for by SNAP, but because they’re so expensive to begin with.

Now Sarah doesn’t want them to know what Doritos are either?