Newt Tells Florida Pols: More Breasts
Make a list of well-known politicians who are also advocates of breast feeding.
Who’s the last person you’d expect to see on the list? Newt Gingrich. But he is. This week, speaking on health issues at a conference for Florida legislators, Newt blamed obesity among the poor on welfare programs that fail to promote good nutrition. Among them is the subsidy given to mothers who formula-feed infants versus those who don’t. In order to neutralize that bias, Newt advocates paying qualifying mothers to breast-feed their children.
Part of his emphasis on a free-market and high-tech approach for curing America’s health-care crisis involved paying poor mothers who qualify for the federal Women Infants and Children nutrition program to breast-feed their children.
We chose to breast-feed our sons, and by “we” I mean the half of “we” that is equipped to do so. I think it’s a great choice for a family to make. I think public policy should not penalize breast-feeding or prefer formula feeding. But I’d hate to be the person in the state budget office that has to come up with the line-item for Newt’s proposal.
Darnit, Michael, this is the second time you’ve tricked me into agreeing with Newt Gingrich!
In all seriousness, my understanding is that federal food program for home day cares provides money for the provider to pay for formula and the money is given to the provider even if the mother is breast-feeding and thus supplying her own milk — thus giving home day care providers the incentive to support a mother’s efforts to pump and breast feed. I think that WIC could do the same/a similar thing without it looking too weird.