When the Government Picks Your Groceries

Imagine standing in a grocery store checkout line with a modest cart: bread, peanut butter, frozen veggies, a rotisserie chicken, and a 2-liter soda. 

Nothing extravagant. 

You swipe your EBT card, and the cashier pauses. “Sorry,” she says, pointing to the soda. “That’s no longer covered. The government says you don’t need it.”

You look around, confused. But sure enough, there it is, buried in a footnote from the USDA. Your choice has been overruled. The government, after all, is here to help.

That’s not a fictional anecdote. It’s now policy in Nebraska.

In a quiet but telling shift, Nebraska has become the first state in the nation to ban soda and energy drinks from being purchased with SNAP benefits, also known as food stamps.

The USDA approved the waiver on May 19, making this a national precedent, not just a state policy. And while health experts and policy wonks are busy patting themselves on the back, the rest of us should ask a much more complicated question:

Who gave the government the right to pick our groceries?

The Slippery Slope of Good Intentions

The move is being heralded as a victory for public health. The USDA’s press release lauded the state’s focus on “healthier eating habits,” citing concerns over diabetes, obesity, and caffeine overconsumption. Governor Jim Pillen called it “common sense.”

But we’ve heard that song before.

As President Reagan once warned, “The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government, and I’m here to help.’” 

The help begins with limiting sugar, but it won’t stop there.

Today, it’s soda. Tomorrow, chips. The day after, red meat. Maybe it’ll be white bread after that. Once the state dictates what counts as “nutritional,” you can bet it won’t stop at fizzy drinks. 

Bureaucracies don’t quit. They metastasize.

And for the record, this isn’t about aiming at President Trump or RFK Jr., both of whom have spoken candidly about government overreach. If anything, they’ve sounded the alarm more than most. 

But even the best leaders must be watched with a healthy dose of constitutional skepticism. Once a system is in place, it outlasts the person who created it.

From Paternalism to Policy

At the heart of this policy lies a condescending presumption: poor people don’t know what’s good for them, and can’t be trusted to make choices with little autonomy.

This is classic government paternalism: “We know better. Let us help you.” And while no one denies the health issues tied to sugar, it’s naïve to think this is purely about health. 

Because if that were the case, there would be broader efforts to reform school lunches, tax subsidies for processed corn syrup, or rein in energy drink marketing.

But they’re not doing any of that. They’re starting with control over the poor, because it’s easy. Because they can.

And again, this isn’t about who sits in the White House today. It’s about what kind of power we’re allowing any administration to wield, especially when it’s cloaked in public virtue. 

Power, once granted, is rarely returned without a fight.

When We Tried This Before: The Ghost of Prohibition

If history teaches us anything, moral reform through government mandate rarely ends well. 

Remember Prohibition?

In 1920, the federal government outlawed the manufacture and sale of alcohol with the ratification of the 18th Amendment. The intention was noble: reduce alcoholism, promote healthier living, and stabilize society. Instead, it birthed organized crime, black markets, and widespread contempt for the law. 

People didn’t drink less; they drank differently, and often more dangerously.

The same spirit echoes in Nebraska’s SNAP decision. 

The slope gets slick fast when the state starts telling people what they’re allowed to consume in the name of health. 

Prohibition wasn’t just about banning a drink. It was about enforcing virtue through legislation. It turned the federal government into a moral compass, and a deeply flawed one at that.

The unintended consequences were swift and brutal. Speakeasies flourished, mobsters made fortunes, and federal agents wasted years chasing moonshine instead of actual crime. 

In the end, the American people rejected the entire experiment. By 1933, Prohibition was dead. The nation had learned the hard way that you cannot legislate morality without poisoning liberty.

What Nebraska’s doing isn’t on the same scale, but comes from the same mindset: we’ll save you from yourself. 

But the government is rarely good at being your preacher, parent, or doctor. Look at the chronic pain sufferers in the current opioid war. And when it tries, it gets it wrong, with consequences that only grow.

Even if you admire a president or a movement you trust, this kind of policy creep demands constant vigilance, not blind loyalty.

Bureaucrats with Grocery Lists

You’re on dangerous ground once you let bureaucrats draw lines through your grocery list. Who decides what’s “essential” versus “non-essential”? Is it some health czar in D.C. with an algorithm? A college grad pushing a vegan agenda from a Health and Human Services cubicle?

Remember the government food pyramid from the 1990s? The one that pushed bread and pasta as the foundation of nutrition and demonized fat? That pyramid turned out to be a disaster, fueling a carb-heavy culture that helped boost obesity rates.

Or take the COVID lockdowns. Government officials who banned outdoor playgrounds were later caught on camera dining in upscale restaurants, maskless. The people making the rules rarely live under them.

Now they’re coming for the soda in your fridge and calling it compassion.

SNAP Was Never Meant to Be Behavioral Therapy

Let’s not forget what SNAP stands for: the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program. It ensured food security for low-income Americans. That doesn’t mean filet mignon or imported cheese, but it also never suggested that recipients would be treated like children incapable of choosing a beverage.

Once the government attaches behavioral conditions to assistance, we’ve left the realm of support and entered the realm of social engineering.

And before anyone argues that taxpayer dollars should come with strings, yes, there should be basic accountability, not indulgence. 

But we’re not talking about banning alcohol or cigarettes (which are already excluded). We’re talking about soda, a drink millions consume daily, poor or rich.

Let’s not kid ourselves. If the goal were fiscal responsibility, we’d look at the billions wasted on bureaucratic overhead and fraud in the welfare system, not someone buying a can of Sprite.

The Bigger Picture: Control Creeps Quietly

This waiver isn’t just about health. It’s about precedent. The USDA just green-lit a process that will almost certainly be copied. Other states will follow suit, and soon, you’ll have fifty different menus of what poor people can and can’t eat, depending on where they live. It’ll be a patchwork of micromanaged morality dictated from above.

That’s not compassionate governance. That’s state overreach wearing a lab coat and holding a clipboard.

And while the current leadership may seem aligned with your values, remember: policies outlast presidencies. The next person in the office might not respect your choices. They might see your life, values, and beliefs as unhealthy. 

And then what?

Final Thought: Freedom Isn’t a Policy, It’s a Principle

This isn’t a debate about soda. It’s about whether we still believe adults, regardless of income, may make their own decisions, even bad ones. Freedom includes the right to be wrong.

We must resist the lie that liberty and government micromanagement can coexist peacefully. The old saying goes that the road to hell is paved with good intentions. 

And right now, that road is rolling through the beverage aisle.

To be absolutely clear, this warning is not aimed at Trump, Kennedy, or any person; it’s aimed at the machine they’re trying to control. 

Once you let it grow, it doesn’t care who’s driving.

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