Opinion - Food stamp reform excluding soda is a huge win for making America healthy again

Yahoo

15-04-2025

The face of the 'Make America Healthy Again' movement is Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. Case in point: The secretary of Health and Human Services recently made a huge announcement that the Trump administration will let states ban the purchase of soda on food stamps. This is the biggest policy win yet for the MAHA movement — a common-sense reform that will help tens of millions of Americans make healthier choices while saving billions of dollars in taxpayer-funded health care spending.
But RFK, Jr. cannot bring this reform to fruition on his own. That job falls to a rising star in the MAHA movement and a self-described 'MAHA mom' — Brooke Rollins.
As secretary of Agriculture, Rollins oversees the food stamp program, which currently assists more than 40 million Americans putting food on the table. She knows that food stamps are intended to help people stay healthy. The formal name of the program is the 'Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,' with an emphasis on nutrition. But there's nothing nutritional about much of our food-stamp spending.
About 23 percent of food stamp spending goes to soda and other unhealthy foods — about $25 billion a year, all told. This year, the food stamp program will pay nearly twice as much for unhealthy food as it will for fruits and vegetables. And over the next 10 years, food stamps will pay for an estimated $60 billion in soda alone. According to Rollins's department, soda is actually the single most popular item purchased on food stamps.
This matters because soda and other unhealthy foods are proven to contribute to obesity and many other health-related problems. While that's bad news for everyone who is affected, it's especially bad for children — about 13 million of whom get food stamps. They're more likely to struggle with weight and other health challenges for life. And their health will likely be worse than their peers, because food-stamp recipients spend more money on unhealthy foods than people who aren't on the program.
Taxpayers should help these kids lead their best lives — not hurt them for the rest of their lives. And taxpayers also should be protected from the high cost of unhealthy foods. Most food-stamp recipients are also on Medicaid, and when their health worsens because of soda and junk food, taxpayers cover the tab of treatment, too. Obesity-related treatments cost taxpayers at least $60 billion annually. By reforming food stamps, taxpayers will save billions of dollars even as they help improve millions of lives.
No wonder Brooke Rollins, that 'MAHA Mom,' is leading the reform of food stamps. After RFK Jr.'s recent announcement, she said that she'll grant waivers to states that want to refocus food stamps on healthy purchases. West Virginia and Utah will likely be the first states to formally ask for this freedom — and they won't be the last. Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders has also promised to request a waiver, and the Trump administration says that it's working with 16 governors. Even Democratic governors like California's Gavin Newsom and Colorado's Jared Polis have expressed interest — a sign of how popular and commonsense this idea is.
This reform is a classic case of good policy making for good politics. Voters, especially suburban moms, have flocked to the Make America Healthy Again movement, and understandably so. They don't want their kids' lives to be ruined by unhealthy foods, and even if they aren't on food stamps, they want the program to be fixed in case they ever need it.
Republicans, especially in the Trump administration, want to keep these voters, many of whom had avoided the GOP until 2024. Democrats want to win them back after making inroads with suburban moms in the 2010s. Hence why leaders in both parties are moving to restore some sense of healthiness to food stamps.
Whatever the reason, the Make America Healthy Again movement has entered the new territory of turning its sweeping vision into concrete and potentially bipartisan reforms. Kennedy will no doubt continue to lead the public charge. Right alongside is Rollins leading on nutrition public policy — a MAHA mom empowering millions of families nationwide.
Tarren Bragdon is CEO at the Foundation for Government Accountability.
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